Team Storm: Origins (PMD)
by Qerta
Summary: Watt, a pikachu and a mystery dungeon researcher, was expecting just another day of work during an expedition. However, while exploring a mystery dungeon known as Sea's Rest, he finds a young lost totodile named Hydro who was cornered in a Monster House. The two of them form a strong friendship, and now their lives will never be the same. (Cover by KilaWolfsblut from Deviantart.)
1. Chapter 1

**(Author's Note: This is my first major story. It might be rough around the edges, but I hope that I'll be able to improve from it.)**

It was the middle of the afternoon. Large, fluffy clouds floated over the coast, as the sun warmed the stone path leading up to a small cave. A pikachu named Watt was on this very same path. He wore a fuchsia bow, that was made to look like a bow tie on his chest and was carrying a knapsack with a map, some scratch paper, an inkwell, a quill, some other equipment, as well as an oran berry, a heal seed, two apples, a max elixir and a petrify orb. It wasn't much, but he wasn't planning on a full-scale adventure, he had something else in mind.

Watt had recently become a member of a research team. They were studying mystery dungeons and their odd properties, mainly how they altered their layouts, and how they do it at such a rapid pace. The group was fairly new, only consisting of a few members, and without much funding for the massive endeavor they were taking on. Despite this, the group was hard at work, trying to gather some basic information to hopefully spark interest, and bring in more funds for the project.

The group had split up, and was off exploring a variety of different dungeons. Watt had been sent to Sea's Rest, a fairly new dungeon to gather whatever information he could. He reached into his bag, grabbed some wool gloves, and put them on. He took a deep breath, staring into the mouth of the cave before heading inside.

He made his way through the floors, collecting various samples of rocks, minerals, and whatever else he could find. Watt looked over them with a magnifying glass, using the ink and quill to write down notes about anything that could be useful for the research team. Along with this, he fought off the occasional slowpoke and krabby during his time, making sure to save up pp for when he really needed it.

Six floors down, and nothing of major intrigue so far. He was feeling disappointed in himself, was he missing something? Maybe they'd make a breakthrough back at camp when everyone returned. At this point, it was most likely getting dark, so he was getting ready to start heading back out. He could always come back tomorrow if he needed more data.

But then, he heard a voice. It was weak, but it echoed through the halls. He could faintly hear what the owner of the voice was yelling. "H-Help me! S-Someone please!"

Almost on instinct, he sprinted towards the voice on all fours, his paws appeared to be barely touching the ground as his knapsack hung loosely off his back. He was guided by the same voice crying out, the words were drowned out by the sobbing, but the voice was clearly begging for help. "Hold on! I'm almost there!" Watt yelled, hoping he wouldn't be too late.

He arrived at a large room full of krabby and slowpoke. His thoughts immediately focused on one name, Monster House. He'd been warned about how dangerous they were, and that if he were to encounter one, he should retreat immediately. However, his eyes focused in on a Totodile on the ground, crying and bruised from all of the Pokemon ruthlessly assaulting him. He had tucked his arms and legs in, as if he was giving up. The begging had stopped, now it was just horrible wails of agony..

Watt knew he had little time left to help him. He tried his best to keep calm and remembered the petrify orb in his knapsack. His paw quickly dived into the bag, and pulled it out. He rushed into the room, and quickly raised the orb. Everyone in the room had stopped moving, locked in place as the orb disintegrated in his paw. He rushed over to the totodile, and started dragging him out of the room as quickly as he could. Once they had escaped, he reached into his bag again and fed him an oran berry. The totodile chewed on it weakly and swallowed it. Almost like magic, his bruises began to disappear, and he slowly raised his head.

"W-Who are you?" the Totodile asked meekly, his eyes were red from all the crying, and tears still rolled down his cheeks.

"I'll explain later. We have to get out of here!" Watt exclaimed, grabbing the Totodile's wrist and holding on tightly as he quickly sprinted back the way he came.

Just a few minutes later, they had gotten out. Both of them were panting heavily, and the Totodile collapsed on the ground from exhaustion. Watt looked behind them to see if they had been followed. He stared at the cave mouth for what felt like ages, before finally concluding that they had escaped for good. He had barely noticed the sun was beginning to set. "Are you alright?" Watt asked, his voice still had a little trace of panic in it.

"You... You..." the Totodile quickly shot up and hugged Watt extremely tightly. "Thank you! Thank you so much!" tears began rolling down his face again.

Watt hugged him back. "I'm glad you're safe," he said

The totodile loosened his hug "W-Who are you?" he asked, his voice was shaky from what had just occurred.

"I'm Watt, a mystery dungeon researcher. Although I'm still fairly new to this field. What's your name?"

"I'm Hydro." the totodile responded.

"I see, it's nice to meet you," Watt replied. He then realized something. "Where's your bag?"

"...Bag?" Hydro asked, confused. "I didn't bring one."

"Are you insane!? Why on Earth would you go into such a place unprepared!?" Watt exclaimed, shocked.

"...I...I...I wasn't thinking straight." Hydro admitted. "I'm sorry..."

"You have nothing to be sorry about, but please, do be more careful next time."

Hydro paused for a second. "...Hey, you said you were researching mystery dungeons, right?"

"Yes, I am." Watt replied, "Something you want to ask about that?"

"Well, I've always wanted to be an explorer, it's been a dream I've had as far back as I can remember. I always wanted to join their ranks but... my parents wouldn't let me. They said it was too dangerous and that I would get myself hurt. Maybe they were right after all..."

"Hmmm, you said you wanted to be an explorer," Watt said. "However, I haven't heard of any explorers around here, just rescuers, so that means..." his eyes widened with shock. "How far from home are you!?"

"Um... if that's the case, I guess quite far." Hydro stopped looking at Watt, and stared at the ground. "Oh no... I'm definitely lost now..."

"I have a map, maybe I could help you find your way back," Watt said, as he pulled it out.

"R-Really? T-Thank you so much!" he snatched the map out of his paws, and his eyes darted quickly over the map, but then they started to slow down. "My... my home isn't on here..."

"Don't you have a map too?" Watt asked.

Hydro shook his head slowly.

Watt was once again taken by surprise. "But why? You should always have a map with you."

"I... I wasn't thinking about it! I was just so frustrated with my parents that I just... ran away, completely forgetting everything except for a couple of apples..." he started to tear up again.

"...Y-You're a runaway!? H-How old even are you!?" Watt questioned.

"..S-Sixteen..." he replied shakily.

"Sixteen!? This isn't good! We need to get you home as soon as possible!"

"B-But how? We're so far away. Where will I stay for the time being?" Hydro asked, as a couple of tears rolled down his face again.

Watt thought about it for a couple seconds. "You could stay with the research team and I. Maybe we could help you become an explorer too."

Hydro's eyes began to sparkle as the tears dried up. "Y-You really would do that for me?"

He nodded, "I'm sure everyone will be happy to help in whatever way they can."

Hydro quickly hugged him again. "Thank you! I'll do my best to help in whatever way I can!"

"We need to get back to camp quickly though, it's getting dark and it'll be hard to see where we're going at night."

"Alright, let's go." Hydro held Watt's gloved paw The two of them made their way back to the research camp, as the sun's glow slowly faded over the horizon. They didn't know it at the moment, but this would spark an unbreakable bond between the two. Many adventures would lie ahead of them, as they worked to make mystery dungeons not such a mystery anymore.


	2. Chapter 2

Darkness blanketed over the land, with the moon being the only source of light, reflecting off the ocean. Watt and Hydro walked on a dirt path, with barely being able to see, relying on the sensation of the dirt under their paws to guide them to their destination. A thick layer of trees lined the right side of the path, creating a feeling of unease, like something could jump out at them at any moment and the two wouldn't have any time to react. Despite this, the two trekked forwards.

Hydro then let out a loud yawn. "Watt, are we going to get to camp soon? I'm tired."

Watt looked over at Hydro. "We're nearly there, this path is a straight shot to the camp."

"You sure? It feels like we've been walking for ages."

As they continued walking, a light became visible in the distance. It flickered with an orange glow as if it was beckoning them to come closer.

"I see the campfire in the distance, we're almost there." Watt then noticed Hydro sprinting towards the light. "Wait up!" he yelled, as he started sprinting after him.

As the two got closer and closer, tents came into view, three to be exact, as well as a small, wooden structure that resembled a beehive large enough to fit a single Pokemon. Hydro's pace quickened, as so did Watt's. By the time they had arrived at the camp, they were out of breath, panting loudly.

"Don't.. run.. off... like that." Watt scolded while trying to catch his breath. The two of them looked around, nobody was around.

"Where is everyone?" Hydro asked.

"Probably sleeping. We missed dinner, and Mago's going to be furious." Watt replied.

Hydro tilted his head to the side. "Who's Mago?"

"The alakazam in charge of the research team."

Then, one of the flaps of the tent in front of them opened, and Mago stormed out. "Watt! Where were you!? You'd better have a good explanation!"

"I'm terribly sorry, sir, there were some complications during my mission." Watt did his best to remain calm.

Mago's eyes locked onto Hydro, which made the totodile flinch. "And who's this!?"

"Sir, please! Let me explain!" Watt exclaimed. "This is Hydro, I found him inside Sea's Rest. He's lost, you see, and he wants our help to get back home."

Hydro chimed in, "Y-Yeah! I'm.. very far from home.. Watt couldn't even find it on his map."

Mago squinted his eyes, and thought for a moment. "Alright, he can stay for a bit, but only until we can have someone bring him to Granite Town. The police should be able to handle it from there."

"Y-You really would let me stay!?" Hydro's eyes lit up.

"What other choice do we have, leave you out here to let Arceus knows happen to you?" Mago's voice started to show more concern.

"T-Thank you!" Hydro exclaimed.

Mago looked at Watt. "He will sleep in your tent if you don't mind."

"Not at all, sir. I'll do my best to make sure he feels welcome." Watt replied.

"Oh, I almost forgot. Please, hand over any samples you've collected and notes you've written"

"Of course." Watt reached into his bag and pulled out a few containers with rock and mineral samples, as well as his notes.

Mago took everything he was given. "Good, we'll inform the rest of the team in the morning. For now, get some sleep." he walked back into his tent.

"Well, that went better than expected," Watt said.

"I thought he was going to wake up the entire forest." Hydro joked.

"We should get some sleep now, before Mago comes out to yell at us again." Watt walked over to the tent on the left, and held the flap open for Hydro to walk in. Inside, there was one large hay pile, a small chest, a couple of candles, and a ton of books. Watt began separating the one large hay pile into two smaller ones.

"You sure have a lot of books. Have you even read all of them?" Hydro asked.

"Well, I have not. However, I plan to spend every chance I can reading them."

Hydro read over some of their titles. "1001 Logic Puzzles", "Secrets of Honeysuckle Manor", but one, in particular, caught his attention, "An Adventurer's Guide to Mystery Dungeons". He picked up the book, and showed it to Watt. "Hey, do you mind if I borrow this one while I'm here?" he asked.

Watt looked over and saw what book he was holding. "Good choice. I read that one on the way to the campsite, I'm sure you could get some great information out of it. Just please be careful with it, I don't want anything in my collection to be damaged."

"Thanks Watt! I'll take good care of it." Hydro put the book next to the new, second hay pile and lied down, while Watt took off his knapsack and put it to the side and also lied down on the one across from him.

Hydro turned to face Watt. "Um... Watt? When do you think I'll be taken to that town Mago mentioned?"

"I'm not sure. Granite Town is the closest settlement to us, yet we're still quite far away from it. Plus, I'm not sure Mago would let any of us take such a journey on our own." Watt replied.

"Then... do you have any ideas?" Hydro asked.

"Yes, but firstly, where do you live?"

"The Pokemon there called it Waterfall Village, but... it's in the middle of nowhere, I doubt it's on most if any maps."

"I see... this is going to be harder than I anticipated."

"What was your plan?"

Watt sat up. "I was thinking if we could find it on a map, we could write a letter, then give that letter and the map to one of the pelipper that come here to deliver messages from the Geo-Research Foundation."

Hydro quickly shot up. "Then he could deliver it to my parents!"

"Exactly, we'll mark our location on the map, then they could send a search party, or maybe even an exploration team to take you home."

"That's a great idea! But... what if Waterfall Village isn't on the map?"

"The best chance we have then is to find some landmarks on the map and get the pelipper to search around the area between all of them. Hopefully, he'll find the village."

"That could work. How long until another pelipper comes here though?"

"...To be blunt, I'm not sure. Only time will tell."

"At least we have a plan now."

"I might have a map in one of my books, but we'll check tomorrow, it's late and we should get some sleep."

"Ok.' hydro laid back down. "Goodnight Watt."

Watt also laid down. "Goodnight Hydro."

 **The next morning...**

The fire had died in the middle of the night, its light slowly being replaced by the sun as it slowly rose above the treeline. Watt and Hydro were still sleeping peacefully, unknowing to how close the morning was. However, their sleep was interrupted by a loud, deep sounding horn, as the two shot up from their sleep.

Hydro quickly gained his bearings. "What was that sound?" he asked Watt, who was rubbing his eyes.

"That's the wake-up horn, roll-call's about to start."

"It's morning already? Well, in that case, good morning!" Hydro said cheerfully.

"Good morning to you too, let's hurry." the two of them got up and walked outside. Mago stood in front of the path, facing the camp with a horn in hand, as an absol, leafeon, and furret left the tent across from them, and a beedrill left the small beehive-shaped construction.

"Hey Watt! You're back!" the Leafeon exclaimed. "Where were you? We were so worried."

"I'm sorry about that, Flora, I got a bit caught up with something," Watt replied.

The absol looked over at Hydro."Who are you?" he asked.

"I'll explain the situation," Mago said. Everyone lined up in front of him.

Mago put the horn down. "Looks like everyone's here. Let's get started." he stood firm. "Now, before I begin handing out tasks, I want to introduce you to someone." he motioned to Hydro to stand in front of everyone, and he did so. "This is Hydro, Watt found him at Sea's Rest. He's apparently lost, and his home is very far away, so he'll be staying with us for a while. I'll let you introduce yourselves to him."

"Hello everyone." Hydro waved to the small crowd.

"Hiya Hydro, I'm Flora." the leafeon said. She motions to the absol, "And this is Hex."

Hex sighs, "I could have introduced myself, you know."

"Oops, sorry." Flora nervously scratched the back of her head.

"Miel here! Ready to assist you in whatever way I can!" the beedrill saluted, his posture just as firm as Mago's, except for the wings keeping him off the ground.

"I'm Slink." the furret said, she stood up on her hind legs.

"It's great to meet all of you!" Hydro exclaimed, smiling widely.

"Now, if everyone's done, it's time to get down to business." Mago continued hos announcement "Firstly, I want Hex and Flora to go back to Quake Canyon to conduct some more research there. Miel will return to Mushroom Forest, and Watt shall head back to Sea's Rest. Slink will go on a supply run for food today. That'll be all."

"But what about me? Don't I get to help too?" Hydro asked.

"No, you must stay here with me, where's it's safe."

"W-What!?" Hydro exclaimed."Come on! Please! I want to help!"

"No! That is an order!" Mago said sternly.

Hydro looked down at the ground glumly. "Ok.."

"Now, if there are no further interruptions, everyone please grab your things, and get ready to head out."

"Yes sir!" the rest of the team said in unison, as they headed back inside to grab supplies. Hydro followed Watt inside his tent.

"Watt? How long will you be gone?" Hydro asked.

"I'll be gone for a while, but as soon as I return we will work on our plan."

"But... what will I do while you're gone?" Hydro asked.

"Well, you could always read the book you borrowed, or talk to Mago, you could learn a thing or two from him." Watt finished filling his knapsack and started eating an apple. "Well, I'm heading off, see you soon," he said, as he walked out of the tent while still taking bites out of the apple.

"Wait! Hold on a minute!" Hydro tried to stop him, but he had already left. He sighed, it was going to be a long, boring day.

 **An Hour Later...**

Hydro was already bored to death. He tried to read the book, but he couldn't concentrate. Hydro had an itch for adventure, and it wouldn't go away. His mind always returned to him having adventures with Watt, he'd been waiting for someone who could finally help him achieve his dreams, and he felt that Watt could guide him.

He left the tent to talk to Mago, maybe that would get his mind off of things. After walking over to his tent, he looked inside and saw Mago working diligently at a desk, studying materials from mystery dungeons under a magnifying glass, and reading the research notes of the other members, while taking notes of his own, using telekinesis to multi-task. Hydro noticed books on the very same table, a couple of candles, and a hay pile on the floor.

"Um...Mago? Do you want to talk?" he asked.

"Not now, Hydro. I'm very busy at the moment."

Now Hydro was out of options. The itch was beginning to grow stronger, and it was driving him nuts. He needed to alleviate it somehow. Then an idea popped into his head. Mago was so busy with his work, he probably wouldn't notice he was gone. He'd probably be working for a couple more hours, just enough time to explore a bit.

He then tip-toed out of earshot, and then bolted down the path, heading towards Sea's Rest.


	3. Chapter 3

Wingulls flew over Hydro's head, as he continued his trek towards Sea's Rest. He had done his best to remember the path yesterday, and when he saw the dirt path turn to stone, he knew he had almost arrived at his destination.

He could now clearly hear the waves crashing against the rocky cost, as the mouth of the dungeon came into view. As he was about to enter the dungeon, he froze, remembering the Monster House he had encountered, and how he had almost fainted. Hydro shivered from that painful memory, but then he regained his composure. "No! I've gone this far! A real explorer wouldn't turn around and go home!" he psyched himself up, and with all his courage, marched into Sea's Rest.

He bravely battled his way through the first floor, checking everywhere to find Watt. When he couldn't find him on the first floor, he moved onto the second, and then onto the third.

At this point, he was getting a bit worried. What if Watt had gone far deeper into the dungeon? Could he really push himself to go that far? He shook his head. "I'm not giving up!" he yelled, to silence the doubts in his head. He felt more confident, but that faded when he saw a swarm of krabbies who had heard the yelling rushing towards him. Hydro immediately began to flee, running down a long hallway hoping it wasn't a dead end. It lead into a small room with nothing in it, but there was another hallway to his left, so he ran down it.

He could hear the krabby getting closer and closer. Why did this floor have so many long hallways? The adrenaline kept him going, as he sprinted towards another room as fast as his tiny legs could carry him.

When he got to the room, he saw a slowpoke sleeping by the stairs leading down deeper into the cave. Hydro sprinted down them as fast as he could, before the slowpoke could even wake up from the loud sound of his feet hitting the stone floor.

Hydro had reached the fourth floor. As soon as his feet touched the stone floor, he hunched over as he tried to catch his breath. Luckily for him, the krabbies seemed to had lost interest, and stopped chasing him.

"Hydro!? What in Arceus' name are you doing here!?" a familiar voice exclaimed. He looked up, and saw Watt, standing right in front of him, his equipment being placed on the back wall of the room they were in.

He was still panting. "I...wanted...to help you..."

"Do you know much danger you put yourself in! Mago told you to stay at the camp for a reason! What if you ran into another Monster House!?"

"I-I'm sorry...I got bored at the camp...I just felt this urge to explore."

Watt sighs. "You need to go back, I'll guide you out of here."

Hydro began to beg, "No! Please! I can help! Just let me stay, I'll do whatever you need me too!"

"This place is too dangerous for you. You're not prepared." as Watt spoke, Hydro saw a large Pokemon in a hallway, quickly charging towards Watt from behind.

"Watt! Behind you!" Hydro yelled. Watt turned as the Pokemon entered the room, it was a kingler. He tried to use thunderbolt, but instead hit the ground to the kingler's right. The next thing he knew, he had been slammed down to the floor with a powerful crabhammer.

Moments later, six krabbies swarmed in from all sides, blocking any escape. "You dare invade our home!?" the kingler yelled.

"No! I didn't mean to! I was just looking for my friend!" Hydro was shaking with fear, as Watt slowly got up, struggling to get himself to stand.

"Prepare to pay the price!" the kingler and the krabbies began moving in closer.

"N-No! S-Stay back!" Watt screamed as thunderbolts rained down from the ceiling. Four of the krabbies and the kingler lit up a bright yellow, as they convulsed from the powerful attack. The other two krabbies backed up after seeing four of their comrades fainted on the ground. The kingler however, kept his ground and grabbed Watt with vice grip.

"Watt!" Hydro screamed, as the two other krabbies grabbed his arms and restrained him, he tried to bite at their arms but to no avail. He watched in horror as Watt was slammed down into the ground, over and over again, completely helpless.

The kingler stopped for a moment and put Watt right up to his face. "I'll be merciful and end this quickly," he said, throwing Watt up in the air as he raised his pincers towards him, preparing a guillotine. They shined extremely brightly with immense power, as Watt began to fall back down towards him.

Time seemed to move in slow motion, Hydro could hear his own heart beating as his eyes filled with distress and panic, as he had no way to stop the kingler from finishing him off. He closed his eyes, waiting for the inevitable.

"Cease this debauchery at once!" A booming voice shouted from down the hall the kingler came from.

"Huh!?" the kingler lost focus as his claws turned back to their normal color. Watt hit the ground hard, groaning with pain.

A slowking walked into the room. "I believe our two guests have learned their lesson," he said, sounding regal and well-spoken. The krabbies released Hydro, as them and the kingler backed off. The slowking walked up to Watt, and took out an oran berry. "Eat this." he put the berry into his mouth.

Watt chewed and swallowed the berry, and sat up. "...Who are you?" he asked.

"I am King Coreef the First, the king of Sea's Rest. Although I'd prefer to be called, Your Majesty." he turned to the kingler. "I believe you're forgetting to do something, Castello."

"Oh, right. Sorry, Your Majesty." Castello and the two remaining krabbies bowed in respect.

"So.. you're a king of a mystery dungeon?" Hydro asked.

"Exactly! Not the most glamorous of kingdoms, but it doesn't really matter to me." he straightened the shellder on his head.

Watt's ears drooped, as confusion swept his face, "...But, why would a mystery dungeon have a king?"

"Oh my boy, you're the inquisitive type, aren't you?" King Coreef let out a hearty laugh. "This place wasn't always a mystery dungeon. In fact, it fairly recently became one, about two months ago in-fact."

"T-Two months ago!?" Hydro exclaimed, "Wow... that is pretty recent."

"Yep, my subjects were in a pickle, and they sought some form of leadership." King Coreef stood proudly, and pointed to himself, "So, I was the one to take the reigns of this opportunity, and became their strong and humble leader."

"...I wouldn't say you're humble..." one of the krabby muttered to himself.

"I will pretend I didn't hear that." King Coreef said, causing the krabby to flinch.

Watt and Hydro looked awkwardly at each other, then back at Coreef.

"Oh, where are my manners!? I forgot to ask why you two are here."

"Well... I'm a researcher working for the Geo-Research Foundation, studying mystery dungeons." Watt replied as he walked over to his bag, took out a small badge and presented it. It was shaped like a circle, with a green hexagon in the middle, and a wreath around the outside. "My friend here is Hydro. He's not part of the research team, but we stumbled across each other here previously. He's far from home, so the rest of the team and I let him stay at our camp."

King Coreef scratched his chin. "A researcher? And there's more of you?"

"Correct." Watt replied.

King Coreef's eyes sparkled. "Excellent! You are doing a wonderful service to the Pokemon world!"

Watt blushed a little. "Why thank you, we're trying our best."

"Who are the others in your group?"

"Well, there's the Head Researcher Mago, an Alakazm, Hex the absol, Flora the leafeon, Miel the beedrill, and Slink the furret."

King Coreef got a huge smile of his face and a twinkle in his eyes. "Wonderful! This is amazing news!" he turned to Castello. "I have a new decree!"

"Yes, Your Majesty?" Castello asked.

"I decree that as long as these researchers continue their hard work, they are welcome to visit Sea's Rest at any time!"

"W-What!? But we just met them!" Castello exclaimed. "How can we trust them!?"

"Castello, you should know by now you should always listen to me. I am your ruler after all."

"Y-Yes, Your Majesty..." Castello sounded defeated.

"Hey! What about me?" Hydro asked.

"You're welcome to visit anytime you'd like as well!" he turned to Castello. "Come on, hustle up!"

"S-Sorry Your Majesty." Castello hurried away. The fainted krabbies woke up, and all of them left the room with the ones that didn't faint, leaving only King Coreef, Watt, and Hydro.

"Thank you Core-, I-I mean Your Majesty." he was a little thrown off by how trusting he was, but if it meant he didn't have to battle through waves of Pokemon to accomplish his research, then that was fine with him.

"My pleasure." King Coreef replied, grabbing Watt's stuff and handing it to him. "You should probably head back to camp, it's been a long day and you should rest."

"Yeah, I feel tired," Hydro said.

Watt thought for a moment. "Well, alright. That battle took a lot out of me."

"Then let's go!" Hydro and Watt made their way back towards the stairs. "Bye King Coreef! It was great meeting you!"

"Goodbye, and have safe travels." King Coreef waved to the two of them as they left and headed to camp.

 **A while later...**

It was late afternoon when the two arrived back at camp. No one else had returned yet, as expected. Hydro was a little nervous about the fact Mago could have noticed he was gone.

"We should tell Mago about King Coreef, I'm sure he'd be delighted to hear this news," Watt said.

"...But... what if he noticed I was gone?" Hydro looked very worried.

"There's only one way to find out." Watt walked up to Mago's tent, while Hydro nervously followed him. When he looked inside, Mago was still working diligently. "Excuse me sir, we have important news."

Mago turned around. "Ah, Watt. What did you find?" it seemed like he didn't notice Hydro had left.

"Well sir, apparently there's this slowking at Sea's Rest named Coreef, and... apparently he's the king on the dungeon."

Mago looked perplexed. "King? Of a mystery dungeon? How odd."

"My thoughts exactly. However, he said the research team could visit Sea's Rest at any time to conduct research."

He stroked his chin. "...Intriguing, but how do we know we can trust him?"

Hydro was about to speak, but Watt tapped his shoulder to signal him to be quiet. "Well, I encountered a kingler named Castello who assaulted me, but King Coreef stopped him."

"Well... if he went out of his way to save you... he seems like he could be trusted. I'll inform the others when they return."

"Alright, sir. Oh, and one last thing I want to ask."

"What is it?" Mago asked curiously.

"Do you happen to have a world map?"

"Yes, I do. Why do you need it?"

"I thought maybe I could find Hydro's home with it."

"Hmmm." he reached over to a basket of rolled up papers and handed a very large roll to Watt. "You can borrow it, just don't tear or spill anything on it."

"Thank you, and I promise it's in good paws."

"Good, now please, let me get back to work. I'm very busy right now, and I believe I may be onto something."

"Ok sir." Watt and Hydro walk out of his tent, and into Watt's.

The two of them sat down on their hay piles, sitting across from each other. Watt has a concerned look on his face.

"Hey Watt, are you ok?" Hydro asked.

"I'm fine. I'm just troubled by something."

"What is it?"

"It's Mago. How come he didn't check on you? It just seems... odd, what reason would he have to focus on his work rather than you? What could be so important?"

"I really don't know. I remember trying to talk to him, and he just told me he was busy. He didn't even turn around."

"I agree... something may be up with him." he shook his head, "That's nothing to worry about right now though. Let's focus on finding your home." he rolled out the map, and placed it on the floor, while Hydro scooted over to get a better look. The map was extremely detailed, with many geographic locations labeled on it, as well as some major cities and towns. The research camp was shown by an ink dot, most likely put there after the camp was first set-up. Even for its large size, it looked cluttered.

"Whoa... where do we even begin?"

"Well, firstly, we need to find the relative location of Waterfall Village. What are all the major landmarks you can think of?"

"Let me think. There's, of course, a waterfall, called Stone-Arch Falls, it feeds into a river that flows past my village."

"Interesting name. Why is it called that?"

"It's because there's a natural arch right at the start of it."

"Fascinating! What else are you able to see there?"

"The village is in a small valley, with cliffs lined with a dense forest. There's only one path in and out, and that's where the cliff flattens out with the ground. Stone-Arch Falls is located near the highest part of the cliff, and a river flows to the lowest part. Past the cliff, there's a large mountain in the distance called Frost Summit."

Watt kept looking over the map, "There, Frost Summit!" he exclaimed, pointing towards it. "However there appears to be multiple forests within the area of the mountain."

"Is Stone-Arch Falls marked on there?"

"...No, I don't see it. I do see two rivers that feed into a single one to the east of Frost Summit. However, only the two separate rivers are labeled, they're the Kerrol and the Wertol river."

"...I haven't heard much about the places outside the village, but I believe I heard at some point those were the rivers that formed ours'."

Watt's ears drooped. "It sounds like you've never really left the village before."

"Yeah... my parents were overprotective of me. They made sure I never left the village, I only heard about the outside world from the occasional traveler and those who left the village to run errands."

"Interesting. Then, how were you able to get all the way here if you knew so little about the world?"

"Well, one day an explorer stumbled across the village, a magmortar named Ignis That's how I found out about exploration teams, he told me all about how they helped Pokemon in need, and had adventures in far off places. I told him about how l knew so little about the outside world, and so, he gave me an old encyclopedia he had. He told me he rarely used it anymore, and only brought it along just-in-case. I remember being so fascinated by everything inside, it contained information about all sorts of things, from plants to mystery dungeons, anything an explorer would need. I read through it over and over again, wanting so badly to be able to explore the world myself. ...Too bad I forgot to bring that with me, but I remember the basics at least, like survival skills."

"Do you remember the name of the book?"

"Yeah, it was called 'The Adventurer's Encyclopedia'."

"I should get that book sometime. Anyways, let's get back on track. This river seems like it's the one that flows through your village. If my hypothesis is correct, all we need to do now is make a letter."

"That's great! My parents are probably very worried right now, so the sooner we send that letter, the better."

Suddenly, the tent flap opened. Slink was standing there, with a bag overflowing with food. "Hey guys, I heard you two talking in here. Are you alright?"

"Yes, we're fine, Slink." Watt noticed the bag, "I see you're done already."

Slink turned her head to the side, "What are you doing back so early? Usually, I'm the first one back."

"Mago said he'll explain when the others return." Watt then thought of something. "Slink, mind if I ask you something?"

"Sure, what is it?"

"Have you seen Mago leave his tent besides when it's roll call or dinner time?"

"No, I haven't. He always just seems to stay in there and work. Every time I've tried to talk with him, he brushed me off."

"Hey! He did the same with me too! What's up with that?" Hydro asked.

"I'm not sure. Watt, why did you ask me that?"

"Mind if I tell her what happened?" Watt asked Hydro.

"Um... I-I'd like to explain it." Hydro said. "Please don't tell Mago, but... I left the camp when he wasn't looking..."

Slink's eyes widened with shock. "What!? Why would you do that!?"

"I-I wanted to help Watt. Anyways... when we got back, Mago didn't seem to notice I was gone."

Slink paused for a moment. "...That is very weird, he didn't even bother to check on you."

Watt nodded, "So, my suspicions were correct. He never leaves that tent unless he has to."

Hydro started to plead. "Please please please don't tell him! I don't want to get in trouble."

She sighs, "I promise, I won't. Just don't let Miel hear about it, he'll tell Mago for sure. Anyways, I'm going to put this food in the stockpile and then go for a walk, I'll see you guys later."

"Alright, goodbye Slink." Watt said

"See ya!" Hydro waved as she left.

Watt closed his eyes and pondered.

Hydro turned to him, "Hey, you alright?"

"This just doesn't make sense... there must be something up with him, I just know it."


	4. Chapter 4

Day turned to dusk, which was slowly turning tonight. as everyone sat around a fire, eating bowls full of berries and apples. The fire crackled, as Mago spoke to the team about what Watt had discovered.

Hex looked at Mago, perplexed. "So, let me get this straight. You're telling us that Watt was assaulted by a kingler named Castello, then a supposed king came to save him, and now he'll let us explore Sea's Rest freely?"

"That is what Watt had informed me about," Mago replied.

Hex's face showed annoyance, "So you're just going to trust the rookie, and believe this ridiculous story?"

"Hey! You're just jealous because he's having the cool adventures!" Flora exclaimed.

"We need to put trust in our fellow researchers." Slink added, "If we don't, we wouldn't get anything done."

Hex scoffed, "Even if he is telling the truth, how could we trust this "king"? How do we know he's not going to lure us into a trap?"

"He saved Watt! A total stranger to him! How much more trustworthy can you get!?" Flora retorted.

"He didn't know about the rest of us before, it was only after I told him. If he really did have bad intentions, he would only have been able to do something to me." Watt said.

"Yeah! Watt's right!" Flora yelled. "What do you have to say about that?"

"If Mago believes it, I believe it." Miel said. "He was put in charge for a reason, and that reason is he's one of the brightest minds in the foundation."

"There just doesn't seem to be something right about this... something feels... wrong." Hex stared down at the ground.

"You're just skeptical, that's all." Slink replied. "There's nothing wrong with that."

Mago stood up. "Agreed, King Coreef is someone we can trust. There is no doubt about it."

"See! I told you, Hex!" Flora gloated.

"...I still don't buy it." Hex replied.

Flora was fuming with anger now. "What will get it through your thick skull!? You're always like this! Stop doubting everything for once!"

"Enough!" Mago yelled. "Stop your bickering or else!"

"Yes sir..." they both said in unison.

"Now, if everyone is finished eating, I say it's a good time to get some rest," Mago said, as everyone passed their bowls up to him.

"Yes, sir." Everyone said.

As the day came to a close, everyone said goodnight to each other and headed into their assigned tents to sleep. Hydro sat down on his hay pile, while Watt started to light the candles in the tent.

"Is Hex always like that?" Hydro asked.

"Well... yes. I understand where he's coming from, but Slink is right, we need to trust each other."

"I agree! We know the truth about King Coreef. He wouldn't hurt us."

Watt nods. "Indeed." he sits down on his hay pile.

After about a minute, Hydro thinks of something. "Hey Watt, mind if I ask you something?"

"Not at all, go right ahead."

"Why'd you become a researcher?"

"Why do you ask?"

"I was just curious."

Watt smiled, and his voice started to sound more passionate. "Well, I'll try to sum it up as best as I can. It's the thrill of discovery, the gaining of new knowledge. The unraveling of the mysteries of the world, and unveiling the truth. Finding answers by studying the world around us. That is why I'm a researcher, to solve the mysteries of the world."

"Wow! That sounds awesome! Kind of like an explorer, correct?"

"I guess you could say it's similar to that in some respects. It's a ton of difficult work, but that's what everyone has to do to answer the questions about how our world functions."

"How'd you become a researcher?"

"Difficult testing, about my knowledge about various fields of science, the scientific method, mathematics, all sorts of other topics. My father taught me everything I know, I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for him."

"Your father? He was that smart?"

"He was a researcher as well, platinum rank in-fact. However, he retired so he could focus on raising a family, at least that's what he told me. He encouraged me to follow in his footsteps, to have a sharp mind like him."

"What's platinum?" Hydro asked.

"Platinum is a metal rarer than gold."

Hydro's eyes widened. "Woah! He must have been a really high rank then!"

"Indeed. I would go into the rank hierarchy, but you should get some rest."

"What about you?"

"I'm going to read about mystery dungeons a little more, and then get some sleep as well."

"Alright, just try to get some sleep too, ok?"

"No need to worry about me."

Hydro nodded. "Ok, goodnight Watt."

"Goodnight Hydro."

Hydro lied down as Watt began to read his book. He closed his eyes, letting himself drift off into sleep.

 **The next morning...**

Once again, the two were roused by a loud horn from outside. Hydro groggily sat up, as he noticed the book sprawled across Watt's body.

"Good morning, Watt." Hydro said, letting out a yawn as he rubbed his eyes.

"Good morning, Hydro." Watt noticed the book on top off him. "I must have dozed off while reading."

"You weren't reading for too long, were you?"

Watt sat up, took a bookmark, and slipped it between the pages while letting out a yawn. "I... may or may not have gotten a little too invested in my book." he said as he stretched out his arms and legs.

Hydro got onto his feet. "Come on! Let's get going before we're late!" he was already walking towards the exit of the tent.

"Just give me a second," Watt said as Hydro walked out. He also sat up and walked out to meet up with the rest of the team.

Everyone lined up in front of Mago, who had a bag next to him. He cleared his throat. "Good morning everyone."

"Good morning, sir!" everyone said in unison.

"I have excellent news for everyone! While performing my usual work, I made a groundbreaking discovery!" he reached into the bag and pulled out two separate rock samples. "Now, one of these rock samples was taken from an area outside Quake Canyon, and the other was taken from inside the dungeon. What I found was that, when I looked at the one that came from inside very carefully, there were very subtle changes in its shape, while the one from outside, doesn't change at all."

"So, what does this mean?" Slink asked.

"Well, my hypothesis is that the changing shape of mystery dungeons isn't the result of one, massive change, but rather many subtle changes that, all together, morph the whole thing into different forms!"

"So, what you're saying is, we're finally making progress!?" Flora exclaimed.

"Well, it's probable," Mago replied.

The group erupted into cheering, everyone was smiling, even Hex had a smile on his face. This would be a small step, but this was one step closer to uncovering the truth about mystery dungeons.

Mago spoke again, "We shouldn't celebrate too early. We still have a long way to go to accomplish this difficult feat. For now, let's get back to our usual work."

"Yes sir!" everyone exclaimed.

"As you know, both Quake Canyon and Sea's Rest have become places of interest. I feel we should focus our efforts on them. With that said, I would like for Flora and Hex to head to Quake Canyon, while Slink, Miel and Watt will go to Sea's Rest. Hydro will stay here with me. That'll be all."

"Yes sir!" everyone exclaimed again, breaking away to begin packing up for their trips.

Hydro approached Watt. "Hey Watt, do you mind if I come with you this time?"

"Of course not! You've already been through a lot. Either way, Miel is coming with us, and Slink already told us that'd he tell Mago for sure."

"Oh... sorry Watt..." he stared at the ground, disappointed.

Watt finished packing up, "I'll return soon. Goodbye Hydro."

"Bye Watt.." he replied, as Watt left the tent, met up with Slink and Miel, and headed out towards Sea's Rest.

 **A while later...**

Watt, Slink, and Miel all walked up to the large mouth of the cave in front of them.

"So, here we are. I wonder what we'll find inside." Slink said.

"So far nothing of interest about the dungeon itself has turned up. However, we may be able to get more information from King Coreef." Watt replied.

"Let's not waste any time! Mago's counting on us!" Miel was already making his way into the dungeon, while Watt and Slink followed.

The group had an easy time making their way through the dungeon. Any krabby or slowpoke who showed up did not fight, and just let them pass by. "The king wasn't lying when he said we'd be welcome here." Watt said.

"Yep, looks like we'll get a lot done today." Slink replied.

Watt nodded, "I was thinking since we won't have any further complications, we should head deeper into the dungeon. I've always wondered how far down this one goes."

"I hope we'll meet King Coreef soon, maybe he'll be able to provide us with more information about Sea's Rest." Miel said.

"I was thinking the same thing," Watt replied, as they headed deeper into the dungeon.

The group arrived at the tenth floor, which wasn't the last one, but seemed like a good place to do some more research. However, before they could, they heard someone walking down the hall to their right.

"Ah! Hello there everyone!" King Coreef exclaimed, waving to them as he walked closer.

Watt and everyone else looked in his direction. "Hello, Your Majesty. We were just about to begin some research."

"Excellent! I see you have Slink and Miel working with you."

Slink looked at Coreef, confused. "Um, how do you know our names?"

"Your friend Watt told me of course! My name is King Coreef, the king of Sea's Rest."

"Mago told us about you." Miel replied, "It's an honor to meet you in-person."

"It's wonderful to meet you both too! So, has your group made any progress yet?"

Watt cleared his throat. "Well, Mago told us he found that the rock samples that were collected from Quake Canyon, changed their shape over time. If his hypothesis is correct, that would mean mystery dungeons go through minor changes of their individual parts, rather than one massive change like we originally thought."

King Coreef looked shocked. "Really!? It seems to change all at once here. One moment, everything's fine, and the next, everything's shifting around."

"Hmmm." Slink thought for a second, "Are you sure you weren't asleep during those times?"

"Well, yes. However I got Castello to stay up some nights, and he informed me he saw the walls shifting."

"It is true! I've heard about rescue teams being caught up in situations similar to what Castello told him about." Mile replied.

"Perhaps the subtle changes occur all at once." Watt suggested.

"That could explain it, but how could we test it?" Miel asked.

"Fair point. However, if that rock sample from Quake Canyon is brought back to that dungeon, and the rock changes shape as soon as the rest of the dungeon does, that could prove it." Watt said.

"He's right!" Slink exclaimed, "Then we could do another test in here with one of the other rock samples."

King Coreef smiled. "I'm sure Castello could do the waiting for you. Just give me any samples you find, and I'll hand them to him."

"That would be great." Slink said, "Thank you so much."

Miel then exclaimed, "Hold on! Shouldn't we be the ones to handle it?"

"Oh I doubt Castello would miss something like a rock changing its shape on its own." King Coreef said.

"He's got a point, rocks don't do that every day." Slink told Miel.

Watt picked up a small rock and hands it to King Coreef, "Perhaps this one could work, Your Majesty."

"Perfect!" King Coreef quickly took the rock. "I'll hand this over to Castello soon."

"Thank you. We'll stay here a bit longer, and see if we can find anything else." Watt replied.

"Just fine with me! The more work you do, the better!" King Coreef turned to walk away, "I'll leave you to your work."

"Alright, goodbye," Watt said

"See you later." Slink waved.

Miel saluted. "I can't wait to see you again!"

"Farewell!" King Coreef walked away.

"So, shall we head in deeper?" Miel asked.

"Of course." Watt replied as they made their way further into Sea's Rest.


	5. Chapter 5

Back at the camp, Hydro was lying down on his hay pile, once again bored out of his mind. He couldn't focus on anything, he wanted to see what Watt was up to, but he knew he couldn't because of Miel. He just lied there, with thoughts running through his head about all the adventures he could be having. He sat up, it seemed like trying to talk to Mago again was the only choice he had. Hydro got up, and walked out of his tent and towards Mago's.

When he walked inside, Mago was still hard at work. He seemed to be in the middle of writing a note, most likely to the Geo-Research Foundation about his discovery. It seemed hopeless to try, but Hydro desperately needed someone to talk to.

"Hi Mago." he said, "I was wondering if you wanted to talk for a little bit."

"Not now, Hydro. I'm very busy at the moment." he didn't even bother to turn around, let alone make eye contact.

"...Are you feeling ok?" Hydro asked.

"I'm fine. Please leave, I need to finish my work."

"Can one Pokemon really be that busy?"

Mago turned his head towards Hydro, before going right back to work.

Hydro began to beg, "Please! I'm so bored, and I want to talk to someone."

Mago turned his head again, he looked annoyed, but he tried to speak as calmly, yet firmly as he could. "Listen, I am leading this expedition, and that means I have responsibilities. I must attend to my research, as well as other paperwork. If I fail to accomplish this, I will not be in good standing with my fellow researchers. Do I make myself clear?"

"I understand... but please, don't overwork yourself. I'm worried about you." Hydro left the tent and headed back to Watt's.

Hydro sighed as he collapsed onto his hay pile, he had nothing left to do. It seemed like he had exhausted all of his options, but then he looked over at the small chest. He got up, walked over to it, and opened it, hopefully finding something interesting inside.

The chest housed many different items, there was a bag of various types of seeds, a few orbs, a larger bag full of berries, and a couple of apples. He also noticed a quill, a spare inkwell, and some paper. Seeing them made him remember about Watt's plan. He still needed to write a note to his parents. After remembering this, he grabbed the quill, paper, and inkwell from the chest, before sitting down on his hay pile to start writing.

"Dear mom and dad,

It's me, Hydro. I want to let you know I'm safe, and I'm with some really nice Pokemon. They're this group researching mystery dungeons, and they're taking care of me right now. I've already become friends with Watt, a pikachu who was the first one I met here. He's the one who helped me figure out how to get this letter to you, I'm really happy to be friends with him. I haven't gotten a chance to get to know the others, but they all seem nice too.

I'm really sorry I ran away, I didn't know what I was thinking. I didn't want to put you two through whatever pain you've gone through, and I am so sorry. I would have gone home earlier, but I got lost. I must have traveled very far, there aren't even exploration teams around here. I don't know what else could be here, but "

He was interrupted by a voice coming from outside, it sounded like Mago's. "Excuse me, do you mind if I come in?"

Hydro was surprised, why was Mago here now? "Y-Yeah, come right in."

Mago walked inside and sat next to Hydro. "How are you feeling?"

"I-I'm fine, but why are you here?" Hydro tilted his head to the side.

"Well, I wanted to get to know you a little more. You're our guest after all."

"But... you said before you needed to get your work done."

"Indeed, however, a short break shouldn't hurt."

Hydro was confused about the sudden change in attitude, but at least Mago was actually having a conversation with him now. "So... what do you want to know?"

Mago noticed the note, "What are you writing?"

"Oh, this?" he held up the note, "It's the letter Watt wanted me to write, I've been working on it while waiting for him to get back."

"You might want to put the note down now."

"Huh, why?" his eyes widened with shock as he noticed the ink rolling down the page. "Oh no!" he dropped the letter and hid his face in his paws, "Now I have to start over..."

"Don't fret, we all have to start over our work at some point."

Hydro looked up at Mago. "I bet you don't have to, you're so smart and all."

"I would be lying if I said I didn't. This is actually my second time leading an expedition focusing on mystery dungeons."

"The second time? What was the first like?"

Mago paused. "...I'd... rather not talk about that..."

"But why?"

"I just...don't..."

"Was someone hurt?"

"No... please stop asking..."

Hydro looked down at the ground. "Ok... I'm sorry..."

"It's fine. I'd just rather leave that in the past."

There was some awkward silence for the next minute or so, Hydro was wondering why Mago was so hesitant to talk about his first time leading an expedition, but he knew he should probably move on from that subject.

Hydro finally broke the silence, "So... anything else you want to ask?"

"Yes, there is. I was wondering how you're time here has been."

"It's been alright. Watt seems like a really nice Pokemon."

"That's good, I'm glad you're getting along with him."

"...I was wondering, was what Hex said about him yesterday true? About him being a new researcher?"

"Yes, it is true. He just joined the foundation a couple of weeks ago. Why do you ask?"

"...Well, Hex sounded like he didn't want to have Watt around."

Mago nodded, "Yes, Hex has doubted him from the start. I don't blame him since Watt has yet to prove himself besides in his testing."

"I-I don't want to sound rude, but why'd you bring him along then?"

Mago sighed, "Because of his father, Nocktur, a Decidueye. I knew him personally, he was a good friend of mine."

"Watt told me about him too. Wasn't he platinum rank?"

He nodded, "Yes, he was quite intelligent, some even thought was a genius, although he would say that would be an overstatement. I let Watt become part of our team since I knew Nocktur wanted a child as bright as him. There was no doubt about it."

"Watt told me he left the foundation to start a family."

"Indeed, in his own words he, 'didn't want to stick around and go senile, when he could have someone take his place and know they'd do the job right.'"

"I doubt he was that old."

"That's how he put it."

"Could you tell me any more about him?"

Mago shook his head. "I'd rather not. I believe it would be rude of me to talk about Watt's family while he isn't around. If you're curious about anything else, you should ask him."

"Ok, that's fine with me."

Mago stood up. "I should probably get back to work. It was a pleasure speaking with you." he started to walk out.

"H-Hold on! There's one other thing I wanted to ask."

"What is it?" he asked, stopped as he was opening the tent flap.

"I wanted to ask... w-what's it like being a researcher?"

Mago let go of the flap, and let it fall back into place, and sighed. "I'll make it brief. It's difficult to work, requiring the use of a logical mind to think outside the box, while also being able to follow laid out procedures. It can get stressful, I've had my fair share of nights where I study until morning, as well as a fair share of my colleagues. However, it is worth it to increase the understanding about how our world operates, which can help further science even more."

Hydro listened, to put that much dedication to helping Pokemon surely was a noble goal. "Why'd you become one?"

"I felt obligated to. It appeared to be a necessity our world was lacking." he lifted the tent flap again.

"W-Wait! I-I have so much more to ask."

"And I do not have the time to answer," he replied sternly. "Now, if you'd excuse me, I have business to attend to. Farewell." he left the tent without another word.

With that, Hydro was left alone again. He curled up on the hay pile, staring at the roof of the tent. Boredom began to set in, but there was also this feeling of curiosity. What would it really be like to be a researcher? Then, an idea dawned on him, as he began searching through Watt's books. Soon, he came across a small book titled, "Geo Research Foundation Personal Handbook". The book was grey, with an outline of the researcher's badge across the cover.

Maybe this book would answer some of his questions. He got comfortable and opened the book to the introduction.


	6. Chapter 6

Back at Sea's Rest, Watt, Slink, and Miel were continuing their trek through the winding hallways. Their footsteps echoed through the dungeon, as they remained uncontested.

"So, how much farther should we go down?" Miel asked.

"I think we should collect a sample from each floor. Then we can compare each one to each other and look for any differences in how they act." Slink replied.

"Brilliant idea." Watt commented, "Should we deliver those other samples to Castello?"

"I don't think we should burden him more, and we should wait for Mago to analyze the other ones too. We should see what's at the end of this dungeon, I'm sure he would love to hear about that."

"Good observation." Watt replied, "I'm also curious about that."

As the three continued forwards down the long, narrow hallways, they eventually reached the staircase and headed down it. Things seemed normal at first, they were in a room with two hallways that branched off from it.

Slink's ears perked up, "Did you guys hear that?" she asked.

"Hear what?" Watt gave her a confused glance before he heard the sound faintly echo as well. It seemed like someone was groaning in pain somewhere not too far from them. "...Is that what I think I hear?"

"I can't tell who that is." Slink replied, "We should check it out."

"...Oh Arceus, please don't let it be Hydro again..." Watt muttered to himself, concerned.

The three made their way down the hallway in front of them, into another small room. They all froze from what was in front of them. King Coreef was lying on the ground on his side, groaning in pain.

"What in Arceus' name happened!?" Miel exclaimed as he rushed over to Coreef's side. Watt and Slink quickly joined him.

Watt shook him a little. "Are you alright?"

Coreef weakly glanced at them, his eyes were unfocused and the regal tone in his voice was gone. "W-Who are you?" he asked.

"It's us!" Watt exclaimed. "Don't you remember?"

Miel's eyes were full of fury and passion, "Who did this to you!? We'll find them and take them down!"

Coreef held his head. "I don't know, I just... woke up here."

"Everyone calm down! We should help him recover first." Slink reached into her knapsack, and put an oran berry in his mouth. He slowly chewed it, and stood up.

"Thank you for your help, but... where am I?"

"Your in Sea's Rest." Slink explained in a calm tone, "You talked to us earlier, remember? You were going to hand over the sample to Castello."

Coreef looked confused. "What are you talking about? I've never seen any of you."

The team looked at each other. "...This is worse than we thought." Slink said.

"Yes... I believe he has amnesia." Watt replied solemnly.

"Amnesia!?" Miel raised his stingers. "That's it! Whoever did this will wish they were dead when I'm through with them!"

"Please calm down! We need to think rationally!" Slink turned her attention back to Coreef, continuing to try and comfort him. The king remained silent as if he was trying to take all the information in.

Watt noticed something odd. "Hold on, where's the shellder? Isn't it supposed to be on his head?"

"You're right! It's nowhere in this room!" Miel exclaimed, "Whoever did this must have stolen it as well!"

"But... why? There would be no reason to." Watt scratched his chin, trying to think of anything about why this happened.

"Well, we're going to find out!" Miel began to fly towards the next hallway before Slink grabbed his leg.

"No! We're all staying with him!" Slink tugged harder until Miel stopped trying to get away.

"What do you think we should do?" Watt asked.

"We should bring him back to the camp and make sure no more harm comes to him."

"And what about his attacker!? Are we just going to let him get away with this!?" Miel shouted.

"Well we can't just leave him like this! Besides, we should gather everyone else before going off trying to find the culprit."

"I agree." Watt replied, "His safety should be our top priority."

The three looked back at Coreef, and Slink cleared her throat. "King Coreef, would you mind coming with us?"

"...King?" Coreef was once again stumped, "I'm no king, but I'll go with you... I guess."

"Let's hurry up!" Miel and the others quickly escorted Coreef out of Sea's Rest.

 **Later...**

The four rushed up to the camp and they were exhausted from all the running they did. Mago had come out of his tent after hearing them sprint up the path.

"Ah, you three are back already?" Mago asked, before noticing Coreef. "And who might this be?"

"This is urgent! We'll explain everything!" Slink and the others proceeded to explain what they had seen in Sea's Rest. Hydro had also come out of his tent to see what was going on.

Slink finished up by saying, "That's the whole story. We need everyone's help to track down who has done this."

Mago sighed, and despite the situation, he spoke calmly, "I think I know what happened to Coreef."

Watt's ears perked up, "Please enlighten us."

"Well, I used to study biology when I was younger. One of the things that intrigued me the most was the effect shellders had on slowpokes. From my understanding, when a shellder attaches itself to the head of a slowpoke, that is what causes it to evolve into slowking. Not only that, the shellder gives it immense intelligence."

"How does that exactly work?" Watt asked.

"I'm not sure, but I wouldn't recommend trying it."

"...I wasn't planning to."

"Anyways, from what prior knowledge we have, if the shellder is removed from the slowking's head, they forget everything they have learned as a slowking."

"Is there any way to restore his memories?" Slink asked.

"The only way to do that is to find the shellder, and reattach it to his head. Then his memories should be returned."

"Alright, so all we have to do is find the thief and get the shellder back, right?"

"But what if the thief destroyed the shellder?" Miel asked, "What would we do then?"

Mago shook his head, "Almost impossible. The shellders are almost impenetrable."

"Alright, that's one negative outcome out of the way," Watt said.

"I have no idea what is going on, or who you pokemon are, but if this is going to help me I am extremely thankful." Coreef smiled despite the situation at hand.

"When the others return, I will inform them about the situation. This is a matter of utmost importance, so all of our manpower will be directed towards this cause."

"Can I help?" everyone looked over, and saw Hydro, standing there and smiling.

Mago's voice turned stern once again. "How many times do I have to say it? No, it's far too dangerous for you."

"But..."

"You need to leave it up to the professionals. I'm sorry, but that's the truth."

"...Fine." Hydro retreated back inside the tent.

"For now, rest up." Mago said, "If we decide it's necessary, I want you all prepared for immediate action."

"Yes sir!" the three researchers replied in unison.

"Uhhh... yes sir!" Coreef saluted awkwardly.

 **A few hours later...**

As soon as everyone had returned, the team was gathered around the campfire. The sun was getting low in the sky, and dusk was just beginning. Everyone was quiet as Mago spoke, explaining what he had learned from Watt, Slink, and Miel.

"So, now that the explanation is out of the way, we should discuss this further. Coreef is an ally of ours, and we must make sure his well being in maintained." Mago announced to his colleagues. "Anything you want to add?"

"I believe we should figure out who the attacker was first," Watt suggested.

Hex scoffed, "Is this even a question we need to answer? I believe it's obvious who did it."

"Please, explain who you think the suspect is." Mago and the others began to listen intently.

"You see, the only other person we know Coreef met with that could potentially match his power, is Castello."

"Are you insane!?" Miel shouted, "Castello is a trustworthy assistant to Coreef!"

"And tell me, Miel, how do you know that?"

Miel flinched, "...I-It's because he's an honorable king! Who would ever betray him!? He saved Watt, a total stranger!"

"Indeed." Watt said, "I was technically an intruder in his territory, he had every right to an aggressive response just like Castello."

"He's the only suspect we have, he was going to meet with Coreef which would give him the perfect opportunity to strike. No one else could have done it."

Flora screamed, "You're just throwing around accusations again! You did the same thing for Coreef!"

"Flora! Quiet down this instant!" Mago yelled.

She looked down at the ground in shame, "...Sorry..." she said, before shooting Hex a frustrated glare.

Slink turned her head to the side, "Are you sure? For all we know, there could have been an outlaw in there with us and we didn't know."

Hex shook his head, "Out here? I doubt it."

"We cannot rule out the possibility just yet. For all we know this could have been a set-up to frame Castello." Watt said.

Hex smirked, "Tell me, Watt, what would an outlaw want with a shellder?"

"I'm... I'm not sure."

"And how would the outlaw have known when to strike at a time that would be perfect to pass the blame onto Castello?"

"He could have been spying on us when we were talking to Coreef!" Miel exclaimed.

Watt shook his head, "I doubt that was possible. The room we were in was completely wide open unless the outlaw had the ability to turn invisible, which I also doubt, one of us surely would have seen him. The only possibility was that he was planning in advance before we had that discussion."

"Well, could you explain how he could have done it?" Hex asked, smirking.

"Um..." Watt's ears drooped in shame, "...no..."

Mago stood up, "Well, looks live we've narrowed it down to one suspect." he looked over at Coreef, "You've been oddly quiet, do you have any thoughts on the matter?"

Coreef shook his head. "No... I've just been taking all of this in. Is it really all true? Was I really a king?"

"Yes, and you'll know it for sure when you get your shellder back." Slink told him.

"...The only thing I must ask is, why did he attack me?"

"I'm not sure." Slink said. "However, once we find him, we will find out."

Mago stood firm, "Now, I believe I have come up with a plan." Everyone turned their attention to him. "We will return to Sea's Rest as soon as possible, attempt to locate Castello, and interrogate him. Hopefully we will find out where the shellder is located, and King Coreef can take his rightful place back."

"I believe we should do this tomorrow." Slink suggested, "That'll give us some time to rest up."

"I don't think that'll be possible." Watt commented, "What if Castello chooses to flee, or finds a way to dispose of the shellder without destroying it?"

"Watt is absolutely correct!" Miel exclaimed, "We need to make sure King Coreef will be able to return to his rightful place!"

"We should do it under the cover of night when they least expect it," Hex added.

"Alright, I believe it is settled." Mago announced, "Once night falls and everyone is prepared, you will all head out head out to Sea's Rest. For now, take a short break. Coreef will stay in my tent for now. That is all."

"Could I come?" Coreef asked, "I remember some of the moves I kept from when I was a slowpoke, and I'm sure I'll be able to do more when I get my shellder back."

"That will be fine," Mago said.

"What about you?" Slink asked, "Aren't you coming?"

"I need to keep guard of the camp, just in case. Now everyone, get prepared."

"Yes sir!" everyone went back inside their tents. Watt and Hydro sat down next to each other.

"...I can't believe that happened to Coreef." Hydro said.

"Me neither, he seemed so strong and capable."

"I'm sorry I didn't say anything, I was just... nervous I would say something stupid."

Watt put an arm around him. "It's alright, no need to worry over it. We have larger problems to think about anyways."

"I wish I could help Coreef, he's such a nice pokemon. Why would Castello do this to him?"

"...I'm not sure. We'll find out soon though."

Hydro stared blankly at the tent flaps, "...Watt, will you be ok? When we first met Castello he-"

Watt cut him off, "Yes, I know. It was frightening for the both of us."

"At least you'll have the other researchers to help you."

He sighs, "I think we can defeat him, but there's something bugging me."

"What is it?"

"If what Hex said is true, why would Castello assault Coreef?"


	7. Chapter 7

Night had fallen, and the stars twinkled in the sky far above the team heading to Sea's Rest. Everyone except Hydro and Mago were making their way down the dirt path, Slink was holding a torch, which made a small circle of light that surrounded the group.

Slink looked down at Watt, "Watt, before I forget to ask, do you remember what moves Castello used when he first attacked you?"

"It all happened so fast, the only two I can remember clearly are crabhammer and vice grip," Watt admitted.

"It sounds like we'll need to keep our distance." Hex commented, "He seems to make a good amount of use of his claws."

"I know razor leaf, so we should be able to get our friend's shellder back without a hitch!" Flora said proudly.

Slink kept the torch held firmly in her paw, "We should still be careful. Keep in mind what he did to Watt."

"Why are you guys acting like Castello for sure did it?" Miel asked, "All this suspicion is just based on what Hex said."

"Because from simple deduction, he is the prime suspect, with little chance anyone else could have committed this act." Hex retorted.

"You can't just say that for sure!"

Slink sighed, "Miel, please, just let it rest."

"Even if Castello hadn't done it, he may have seen the true culprit," Watt replied.

"We sound so much like detectives!" Flora exclaimed, "This is really exciting!"

"It didn't seem like you were so excited back at camp." Slink commented.

"That's just because Hex was making assumptions about pokemon. I mean, we're researchers, we aren't supposed to believe things without solid proof right?"

Hex sighed, "It's called a hypothesis, Flora. They're not that complicated to understand."

Flora looked at Hex skeptically, "More like saying he's guilty until proven innocent. You can't just apply the same logic to both pokemon and science."

"Then tell me Flora, if you knew better than me, why did you just yell at me without any purpose?"

"Because you couldn't prove it!" Flora was attempting to keep herself from exploding.

"Could we please save the arguments until we get the shellder returned to Coreef?" Watt asked.

Both Flora and Hex shut their mouths, and gave each other a scowl.

Coreef leaned over, and whispered into Slink's ear, "Is your group always arguing?"

"No, but ever since Watt brought Hydro to the camp, things have been off for us." Slink whispered back.

"I see," Coreef whispered back.

The group was silent for the next few minutes, the only sounds being their footsteps and the crackle of the torch. They eventually arrive at the cave entrance.

"Is everyone ready?" Slink asked.

Hex scoffed "Well we wouldn't be here if we weren't. Let's just get in there before Catsello does something worse."

"...A crude way to put it." Watt commented.

"Let's just get this over with." Hex said.

"Let's split up into two groups." Slink pointed to Watt, Coreef, and Miel, "You two will come with me, while Flora, Hex, and I will travel in another group. When one group reaches the staircase, they will call out to the other group so we can meet up."

"Why can't we just go in all as one group?" Coreef asked.

"Because mystery dungeons only allow groups of four to enter at a time. We can bypass that by forming one group when we reach the staircase."

"But wouldn't it be safer if we just rendezvous in the first room?" Watt asked.

"It'd be better for us not take any risks. The first room should be mostly clear."

"Sounds like a plan." Miel said.

After the group was split up into two, they began making their way in. Slink's group went in first, and not too long after, Watt's group followed. When they got into the first room, they noticed there wasn't any resistance upon entry.

Watt looked around every inch of the room, "It appears to be clear so far. Could they be setting up an ambush? Maybe a Monster House."

"Listen, I don't care what happens as long as we get the king's shellder back. I'm sure we could fight off an ambush with all of us together." Miel already was making his way down the hall in front of them, as Watt and Coreef followed.

As they continued, there was no other Pokemon in sight. Just empty hallways and rooms with the occasional item, but nothing else. Everything seemed too peaceful.

Just then, they heard Slink's voice echo through the halls. "Over here! We found it!" Watt's group quickly ran towards the voice, as she kept calling out to help guide them through the winding hallways. Soon after, the groups were finally reunited.

"That didn't take you very long." Watt commented.

"Maybe this won't be so difficult after all!" Flora smiled, trying to raise the spirits of her fellow team members.

"...Or we just got lucky." Hex replied.

"Focus on what's important, we need to hurry up." Slink walked down the stairs, and the rest of the group followed without question.

When everyone made their way down to the second level, they heard something from behind them. They all paused and got into combat stances. It was footsteps, and they were coming down the stairs they had just reached the bottom of. The group was prepared to ambush whatever walked down them.

As the footsteps were almost at the end of the stairs, they could see someone's feet. They all jumped towards the staircase, and they were all shocked when they saw who it was. It was Hydro, who after noticing the group leaping towards him, let out a loud scream before the team barely stopped themselves, resulting in them falling into a pile at the bottom steps.

"O-Oh no! I-I'm so sorry!" Hydro screamed, "I-I didn't mean for that to happen! Are you okay!?"

Slink looked up at Hydro, "What are you doing here!?"

"I-I wanted to help Coreef! H-He's my friend, I can't just leave him like this!"

The team got off the stairs and stood up. "Haven't we gone through how dangerous these places are!?" Watt exclaimed.

"I know, b-but I promise I'll be able to help!"

"Hydro... I don't want you to get hurt..."

Hex interrupted them, "Hold on. Hydro, how can you be friends with someone you barely know?"

Hydro flinched and then sighed. He was probably going to have to admit this at some point anyway. "Um... well... w-when Watt w-went to Sea's Rest on his own a-after he saved me... I... I followed him because I wanted to help."

"You did what!?" Miel exclaimed. "Are you crazy!?"

Hex looked over at Watt. "Is this true?"

"Well... yes." Watt admitted, "I was going to escort him out of the cave, however, that was when we were attacked. We were surrounded, and couldn't escape."

"I-I begged him not to tell Mago because I was a-afraid I'd get in trouble."

"...I agreed to that. He's already been through so much, and I didn't want to see him suffer more."

"So you let him get off scot-free!?" Miel yelled.

"...I was hoping he'd learn his lesson from that experience, apparently, he did not." Watt's ears drooped.

"I-I want to be brave! That's why I did it! I want to be a brave explorer who helps pokemon no matter what. I thought maybe I should help Watt because he's not only my friend, but that maybe I could prove to myself I'm stronger than I think I am..."

Watt put his paw on Hydro's shoulder, "I understand what you mean, however that's no reason to keep throwing yourself into danger. We're all worried about you."

Hydro pauses and looked at everyone before sighing. "...Maybe you're right... I should just go back to the camp..."

"I'm sure you'll get your chance eventually. I'll bring you back to camp if you want."

He looked Watt right in the eyes, "I think you should help Coreef, but if you really want to."

Watt turned to the rest of the group, "Is everyone else fine with that?" everyone looked at each other, looked back at Watt, and nodded.

"We'll go on without you. I hope you'll get home safely." Slink and the others turned and began walking down the other hall.

"Mago will hear about this though." Miel followed everyone else.

"Farewell, and good luck." Watt then turned to Hydro, "Let's hurry up."

Hydro nodded, "Alright." the two of them began to climb the stairs, but their plans were brought to a halt.

The dungeon shook violently, as Watt and Hydro rolled down the stairs while the others barely kept their balance.

"W-What's happening!?" Hydro screamed.

"I-It's an earthquake! Cover your heads!" Miel shouted, everyone doing as instructed and hunching low to the ground. The staircase disintegrated and the hole in the ceiling was covered up by rocks.

"T-The walls! T-They're shifting!" Slink yelled, before a wall burst from the ground and blocked the hallway. The shaking continued as the walls seemed to morph and bend, surrounding Watt and Hydro, separating them from the rest of the group.

Watt stumbled to the floor, as the room rocketed from one end to the other, slamming into rock not part of the dungeon, creating a huge shock-wave that threw the two of them against the opposite wall.

Watt lied on the ground, completely helpless as Hydro tried to get up, his arms and legs were shaking before he fell on his stomach, letting out a groan of pain. "I-It... hurts..."

Some dust fell from the ceiling, and the two of them looked up to see the ceiling was breaking into pieces.

"H-Heads... down!" Watt put all his energy into shouting the order, the two barely had the time to put their arms over their heads as the ceiling collapsed, the rocks tumbling down towards them as they lied there helplessly.

The next thing they knew, everything went black.


	8. Chapter 8

Everything was silent, Watt slowly opened his eyes and looked around him. Rubble was everywhere around him and the ceiling appeared to have been untouched, as if it reformed right after the first ceiling collapsed. He slowly got up, he felt a dull pain pulse through his body, and his head was pounding. Thankfully, none of the rocks had fallen on top of him. He reached into his bag, and pulled out an oran berry, popping it into his mouth and feeling the pain starting to fade.

Watt noticed Hydro was on the ground, still covering his head with his eyes shut tightly, he hadn't been hit as well. He climbed over a large piece of rubble and crouched next to him, "We're fine, it's over now." he said as calmly as he could.

Hydro opened his eyes and gave Watt a look of fear and distress. "W-What... h-happened?" he barely stammered out.

"Hmm. It appears that the dungeon's layout changed while we were all inside it."

Hydro slowly stood up, groaning in pain. "I...didn't think that would happen to us. Ow! Everything... hurts..."

"Here, eat this," Watt said, pulling another oran berry out of the bag and handing it to Hydro. He took the berry and put it in his mouth.

"T-Thank you. I feel better already."

"You're welcome. Despite this setback, we should not waste any more time here." Watt looked around the room some more. He froze in place as his facial expression turned to one of fear.

"Watt, are you ok?" Hydro looked around the room himself.

"...There's, no exit. We're trapped in here!" Watt exclaimed.

Hydro realized he was right. There was no exit, just rocks all around them. "W-What!? T-This can't be happening!" he ran over to one of the walls and started pounding on it. "Hey! Let us out! Please!"

"I doubt anyone can hear us... there appears to be too much rubble in the way."

"Don't say that! Someone can hear us! I know it!" Hydro yelled before he continued to pound on the wall, pleading for help.

"We shouldn't waste our energy, we need to figure out a way to escape."

"But... how?"

"Just think. There's potentially a weak spot, somewhere we can break through the rubble. An escape route shouldn't be nonexistent."

"How do you know!? There could just be walls all around us!" Hydro was losing his head, the idea of being trapped in here for much longer was frightening.

"That shouldn't be the case, all the rooms of a mystery dungeon are interconnected. None are completely separate from each other."

"Alright, so look for any rocks that could be covering up an exit, right?"

"Correct. We'll need to get through all this rubble though. Let me attempt something, please stand back."

Hydro backed up, and watched Watt charge himself with electricity, unleashing it into a thunderbolt on a large pile of rubble in front of him. The bolt wasn't powerful enough to shatter the rock, only breaking off a few pieces.

"...It seems like that won't work. My thunderbolt is barely doing any damage. I doubt my quick attack could do anything to it either."

"That's bad, really bad!"

"One of us could use an escape orb, however since we've entered at separate times, one of us will be left in here alone. I'm not that desperate yet."

"...Do you have any ideas?"

Watt's mind raced as he tried to think of something. He was drawing up blanks, and any idea that did pop into his head was immediately shot down as soon as it came to mind. Despite this, he kept trying to think, not wanting to let Hydro down.

"...Watt? Is there... anything you can think of?"

"Give me a second." Watt's mind went back to work... nothing. Nothing was coming to mind. Why at a time like this? Such a crucial moment and all he could think of was flawed ideas, ideas he couldn't execute, and the blank space in-between these sudden bursts of hope that were dead on arrival.

Hydro was getting worried, seeing the distressed look on Watt's face. This was really bad, if Watt, someone so smart couldn't think of anything, then what could possibly be done? "...Is there anything we can do?"

Watt sighed, "At this moment... I doubt so..."

"W-We're just stuck in here!?" Hydro exclaimed.

"Until we can come up with something... it seems like it."

"Come on! There's got to be something! We can't just be trapped in here until... until... w-whatever happens to us!" Hydro ran up to a boulder and started to punch it, flinching with pain every time he hit it.

"We've already tried that, pounding on the boulders won't do anything."

"There's got to be a way to break them." Hydro stopped punching the boulder to let his paws rest. It seemed like smashing their way out was their only option. Then, it hit him. "Watt! Watt! I think I have an idea!"

Watt turned his head to the side, "What is it!?"

"Well... there was this Vaporeon at the village who taught me a few moves. I-I think one of them could break through these rocks."

Watt's ears perked up, as his mouth curved into a hopeful smile. "That's excellent! What is it?"

"It's called aqua tail, but I haven't used it in a while. I'm not sure I remember how to do it."

"You should try it, there's no reason not to."

"Okay," Hydro replied, before turning to the boulder he was punching before. He began to mutter to himself, "Alright, I think I do this first." his tail raised, "...Now, what's next? Oh, yeah, right." his tail begins to glow a bright blue. He turned his body as he swung his tail, smashing the rubble and causing it to be smashed into smaller chunks. The rocks flew across the room, away from where his tail made its impact.

"I did it? ...I did it!" Hydro was beaming, with so much energy he began to do a small victory dance. "I did it! I did it!" he sang.

"That was incredible!" Watt was in awe as he stared at the rocks which once made up the boulder.

"Thank you. We need to hurry, Coreef and the others need our help!" Hydro climbed over another large rock and started sprinting down the hallway.

"Wait up!" Watt yelled as he did his best to catch up with him.

Hydro turned stopped and turned around to let Watt catch up.

"Hydro." Watt said as he caught up, "Before we continue forwards, I must tell you something."

"What is it?" Hydro asked curiously, his head tilted to the side a bit.

"...I'm impressed with your strength. I'll be honest, I...didn't expect such a display of power from you."

"I didn't expect it either." Hydro scratched the back on his head, blushing a little from the compliment.

"I must apologize for doubting you before." Watt replied, "I'm happy you appeared when you did, I have no idea what would have occurred if you did not."

"It's okay, Watt. I'm not the best at anything, but I try my best to help in whatever way I can."

"Let's hurry, we need to make sure everyone else is alright."

"Sounds like a plan, you lead the way and I'll follow."

"Stay close to me, we'll all discuss what to do from there."

The two continued their trek through the dungeon, unsure of what else they would find along the way


	9. Chapter 9

Watt and Hydro were sprinting as fast as they could through the hallways. They spotted some krabbies and slowpokes, some were too weak to fight, while others were able to put up some resistance, but not much. They wondered where they all came from, but that didn't matter. If they could meet up with the rest of the group, they could figure out what to do from there.

The two were barely even scratched by the weakened pokemon, there were so many of them on this floor though, as if they had gathered here for one purpose, or maybe it was a coincidence due to the random shifting. There was no way they could be sure yet.

Both stopped for a moment to catch their breath, "There's so many of them now." Watt said, after his panting began to slow.

"But why? Where were all of them?" Hydro asked.

"...Well... it's a disturbing possibility, but what if they were here to ambush us?"

Hydro became even more concerned, "A-Are you sure? I mean, they're supposed to be friendly towards us... unless..." Hydro thought for a moment, then it struck him. "T-They couldn't be working for Castello, could they!?" he exclaimed.

"I've had that thought as well. Maybe some potential plot to overthrow him, but for what reason?" Watt rested his head on his paw and closed his eyes, beginning to get lost in thought.

Hydro grabbed Watt's arm, "Come on! We can't waste anymore time!" he yelled, as he ran down the halls, dragging Watt behind him who barely kept up.

The two made it to a massive room which had many hallways feeding into it, where they encountered a startling scene. The rest of the research team members were on the ground, covered in bruises and barely able to move, along with some other pokemon who seemed to be from the dungeon. There were probably more than twenty pokemon surrounding them. and Coreef was standing in the middle, his paws in the air as if to surrender along with a few other dungeon pokemon who seemed to be trying to guard him and the research team, although they were clearly outnumbered. Castello was facing him with anger in his eyes.

"I've already told you! I have no idea what's going on!" Coreef yelled.

"Stop playing dumb with me you tyrant! You know what you did, and you will pay the price!" Castello slammed his large claw into the ground, the crowd behind him booed and hollered at the fallen king, as Coreef stood there utterly shocked and confused.

It seems their worst fears were realized, there was a full on uprising was taking place.

"He's no tyrant! The only tyrant here us you!" one of the krabbies in the center shouted.

"Keep telling yourselves that!" a slowpoke standing by Castello shouted, "Everything would have been fine if he hadn't taken over!"

As the two sides bickered with each other, Watt and Hydro noticed the shellder was right behind Castello. However, before they could act, one of the krabbies on the other side of the room noticed them. "Hey! It's those two again!"

It was too late to hide, Castello had already turned and saw them. "Well, well. Fancy meeting you here again."

"What have you done!?" Hydro screamed . "What did you do to them!?"

"What I did? The dungeon did most of the work, we found them trying to grab the shellder and decided to take the opportunity to take them down! We would have finished the job if you two and these other fools hadn't shown up!"

"The only fool is you!" a slowpoke standing by Coreef shouted.

"Shut up you traitor!" a krabby yelled back.

"I thought we had an agreement!" Watt exclaimed.

Castello shook his head, "Did you think we wanted some random pokemon freely wandering around our cave, doing whatever they wanted!? That was Coreef's idea, not ours!"

"But why?" Hydro asked, "Why would you do this to him?"

"Because he's power hungry, that's all it is!"

"Don't listen to him!" a slowpoke in the center shouted, "He just wants anarchy!"

"You brainwashed morons!" a krabby screamed.

"You're bandits and nothing more!" another krabby shouted back.

"I've had enough of this!" Castello raised his claws, "Today we end this once and for all! Attack!"

Coreef's eyes widened with horror, as the surrounding forces quickly closed in on him and the few trying to keep him safe, Watt and Hydro had barely anytime to jump into the hallways they just came from to hide from the violence. The two could hear the battle rage, although the amount of pokemon was not grand, the battle was still intense.

"Oh no! This is bad! Really, really bad!" Hydro was freaking out. "What do we do!?"

Watt was taken completely off guard, his mind raced trying to process everything they had just witnessed.

"We can't just stand here! We have to do something!"

"...What can we do?" he asked solemnly, "Castello is too powerful, without the others what could we possibly do?" he looked gloomy, his ears were drooped and he was looking down at his feet.

Hydro looked shocked. "You're just going to let Coreef to fight on his own!?"

"I don't want to do that, however we don't have a plan. This just happened out of nowhere and..."

"There's no excuse! I'm not going to let Coreef get hurt!" Hydro turned and was about to jump into the fray, before Watt grabbed his arm.

"You're a lunatic! Who knows what'll happen to you!? We need to think of something first!"

Hydro turned to him. "There's no time to think, we must do something now!" he broke free and ran into the battle. "I'm coming!"

Watt began to chase after him, "Hydro get back here immediately!"

The two ran straight into fight, Hydro was already trying to knock some of the pokemon surrounding Coreef away with aqua tail, swinging wildly. He was successful knocking away the first three, who were not expecting the to attacked from the side. However when he tried to attack another krabby, it quickly counted by grabbing his tail.

Hydro yelped and tried to break free, the krabby was about to make a move before Watt slammed into it using quick attack. It lost its grip and stumbled back into the crowd.

A fair amount of the pokemon turned away from Coreef and swarmed Watt and Hydro. Watt took out a petrify orb, he raised it high as he prepared it. However, as it was beginning to activate, it shattered into many tiny fragments. Watt flinched as the shards fell around him, both were completely dumbfounded at why it didn't work.

Before he could think about it for too long, the pokemon began to use a variety of moves on them, headbutt, water gun and metal claw just to name a few. They were taking a beating, but before they could all do too much damage, Watt quickly used a thunderbolt, causing the area around them to light up in a flashing yellow light that blinded both of them for a few seconds. When the light faded, the pokemon around them had fainted, covered in soot from the burst of electricity.

They look at Coreef and the others, they were being swarmed by a large group of pokemon, struggling to hold them off. The two were about to go help them, until Castello ran up behind them and raised his claw high in the air. The two were able to notice and got out of the way of his crabhammer.

"You're not escaping your fate this time!" Catsello yelled, as Watt jumps back, barely avoiding the clutches of his vice grip. Watt is about to charge up a thunderwave, before Castello's claw slammed into his side, knocking him to the floor.

Castello charges a crabhammer to slam down onto Watt, before Hydro quickly jumped on his back and closed his jaws around his head. Castello screamed as he desperately tried to grab Hydro with his claws. "Get off me you- agh!" Hydro bit down harder on him, Castello starts running around, trying to shake him off.

The other pokemon heard the cries of their leader. Some of them split off to help Castello, leaving fewer of them to fight Coreef. The research members hadn't been touched by the swarm yet, but Coreef's forces with quickly diminishing, and those that remained were growing weak.

Watt quickly came up with a plan. "Hydro! Release your grip!"

Hydro did so, jumping off of Castello who was struggling to get his bearings again. Before he could though, Watt quickly used a thunderwave. Castello's entire body locked up, his mouth quivered as he tried to say something, but couldn't get anything out.

Hydro panicked when he saw the large group of pokemon running at them. "Watch out!" he yelled, as he quickly backpedaled. Watt turned in the direction of the group, but before he could react he was slammed into the ground trampled as he yelped in pain. They went right over him, blindly charging towards Hydro.

He was frightened, why were they charging towards him? His question was soon answer when he tripped over the shellder, falling onto his back. The shellder was right there, if he could get it to Coreef, this entire battle would be over.

Hydro needed too act fast. the pokemon were closing in and he didn't have much time. What could he do though? He couldn't take on all of them himself, it seemed hopeless.

Just as the group was about to reach them, about three other pokemon surrounded by some form of energy flew from the back right into the charging group, knocking them to the ground. Hydro looked up, and saw Coreef, covered in bruises and scratches, but still standing tall in the center, holding his paws out in front of him, before lowering them, causing the energy to fade.

The pokemon groaned as they tried to get up to no avail, they kept tripping over each other. Watt had already almost gotten up, and was limping towards Hydro while reaching into his bag to pop an oran berry in his mouth.

Catsello's paralysis then wore off, he turned to face Hydro and Watt. "Give up or I'll- agh" he yelled, as Coreef used psychic again to force Castello's claws behind his back. He tried to break free, squirming and pulling against the force holding him in place.

"H-Hurry! I'm not sure how long I can hold him!" Coreef yelled.

The other pokemon finally got up, and were about to charge again before Watt brought lightning down from the ceiling, hitting all of them and knocking them out. His bruises and scratches had healed because of the berry. He grabbed the shellder and yelled, "Hydro! I could use some assistance!"

"Right!" Hydro grabbed onto the shellder as well. They tried to lift it up with all of their strength, but after only being held for a few seconds, it dropped to the ground. The two were forced to drag it across the room. It was still very difficult to move, they dragged it slowly as it scraped across the floor.

The two were halfway there when Coreef's paws began to shake, he couldn't keep using psychic for much longer. As they were passing Castello, Watt used a thunderwave on him to keep him in place, before they continued to drag it.

It didn't take much longer to reach Coreef. They let go of the shellder, and Coreef reached down and picked it up. He placed it on his head, where the shellder proceeded to reattach itself.

Maybe now the two would finally get the answers they were looking for. 


	10. Chapter 10

While Watt and Hydro tried to help some of the research members up, Coreef didn't take a second to relax, as his attention immediately turned to Castello, who's second dose of paralysis was fading. "Traitor! Insurgent! Oh how many awful words I could use to describe you!"

"You have no right to speak!" Castello yelled, "I am no longer loyal to you after all the things you've done!"

"The things I've done to stop you from plundering innocent travelers for their possessions and loot!?"

"We've needed to do that to survive ever since this disaster struck our home!"

"There is no excuse! Who do you think we are, savages!? All you've done is assault innocent pokemon!"

Watt finished helping Slink up to her feet, "Thank you." she said weakly.

"Hold on! Why are you two fighting!?" Hydro yelled.

The two turned to Hydro, their faces plastered with fury before Coreef's expression softened. He took a deep breath and tried to regain his composure. "Very well, I'll explain what has lead up to this point."

"No, you won't!" Coreef yelled, "He'll just spout lies! I will speak for everyone in Sea's Rest about what really happened!"

"Me!? A liar!? How dare you say that!"

The two continued to bicker as Watt helped more pokemon up. Hydro tried to think of something to say, something that might stop them from fighting again.

"Please stop! For everyone's sake let's try to figure this out!" Hydro pleaded to the two of them.

Castello turned his attention towards Hydro, "You have no idea what we've been through! Let us settle this ourselves!"

"Well I know you're not going to end this peacefully you're just going to hurt each other more! I thought you were friends!"

"We were never friends! I was just his servant!" Castello yelled.

"You were my friend before you committed this atrocity!" Coreef shot back, "I care for everyone who lives here, that's why I stepped up to leadership!"

"You're wasting your breath!"

"Everyone! Just stop!" Watt yelled. The room went silent as all eyes locked onto him, "We should get back to what Hydro stated before, we should figure out what happened. I believe we should hear from both sides."

Coreef and Castello looked at each other. "Watt is right, they should all hear about our plight," Coreef said.

Castello sighed, "Fine, if i makes things easier, I'll do it."

Watt reached into a pocket on his knapsack and pulled out a single poke coin. "How about we flip a coin to see who speaks first?"

"That sounds fair. I'll go heads." Coreef said.

"Then I guess I'm stuck with tails." Castello crossed his arms.

Watt rested the coin on his thumb, and then with a quick flick of it launched it into the air. It landed on the ground with the P side up. "It's heads."

"Good." Coreef cleared his throat. "I shall begin," he said, as Castello glared at him.

"Sea's Rest, as you know, wasn't always a mystery dungeon. Two months ago it was just an ordinary cave where we lived peaceful lives. There was the occasional small problem, however nothing major like we are going through now. That all changed when disaster struck.

One day, out of nowhere, the walls began to shift violently like you all have experienced. Pokemon were flung around and slammed into walls, as the once normal cave twisted into a mess of hallways and rooms. By the time it was over, the reality had set in. While our knowledge on the subject was limited, we knew what had happened; Sea's Rest was now a mystery dungeon.

At that point, everyone began to pandemonium spread throughout Sea's Rest. Someone needed to guide everyone, give them hope, and maybe eventually find a way to solve this. I was the one who stood up to the task, I gave the pokemon hope, and they recognized me as their leader.

Things were going well, until Castello started leading a rogue faction to attack innocent pokemon that wandered in here. He said we needed it to get the resources we needed to survive, however we could get everything we needed from elsewhere, such as Mushroom Forest."

"He's a liar!" Castello yelled.

"Please, let him finish. Then you may speak." Watt said

"I asked some of our residents to help keep them in line, and they agreed to do so. Castello wasn't pleased and claimed everyone was going to starve because of it, even though he was clearly wrong. I want to rebuild Sea's Rest, to not let it be stuck in perpetual anarchy and chaos. We are not savages, and we never will be." Coreef stopped speaking, "Castello, you can begin now."

"Finally." Castello also cleared his throat, "While Coreef is accurate about the chaos that spread throughout our home when that fateful day came, he is wrong about everything else! Most of us didn't recognize him as a leader, we didn't want someone controlling us! We would have been fine on our own!

We used to be able to go to Mushroom Forest to gather food, either that or just get whatever we can from the surrounding area. They pitied us, and gave us supplies for the first few days. Then, the same disaster struck them, their food reserves were constantly shifting and they had to fend for themselves. We had to do the same, that's why we began grabbing whatever we could manage, even off of travelers. We didn't want to do it, but we had to in order to survive, otherwise we'd all starve!"

Coreef is delusional! He believes in creating a utopia where none can be created! All we want to do is survive and he's a threat to that one wish!" Castello ended off his speech.

Finally, everything started to make sense. The problem they were facing was being caused by a food shortage. With that information in mind, maybe they could begin getting Coreef and Castello to work things out. "Thank you both." he said, as him and Hydro finished helping the rest of the research team up. He turned to his companions, "Are you all feeling alright?"

"I-I think so." Slink replied, as her and the other research team members reached into their bags for the oran berries they packed, a little more than what they all needed.

"Good." Watt turned his attention back to Coreef and Castello.

"You've all been through a lot." Hydro said, "However fighting each other isn't going to fix anything, all it's going to do is make it worse."

"Then explain what we should do about the insurrection!" Coreef pointed at Castello.

"More like what we should do with you!" Castello yelled at Coreef.

"Everyone! Please be civil!" Watt exclaimed, "Nothing is ever going to be solved if you two keep bickering like children!"

The two continued to yell and throw insults, screaming about why the other was wrong and they were right. Even when the other research team members tried to speak up, their voices were drowned out as the two pokemon's voices echoed throughout the room. Hydro turned to Watt, "We have to stop them!"

"It seems hopeless..." Hex said, "The two will just keep bickering."

"I can't believe this is happening!" Flora exclaimed, "We're stuck in the middle of a civil war!"

Hex glared at Flora, "You see!? I told you something was off, but you didn't listen!"

Flora glared back, "Hey! How were any of us supposed to know this would happen!?"

"Shut up!" Miel yelled, "We have more important things to be focusing on!"

Slink whispered Hydro and Watt, "Hey, you two have been getting them to act rationally so far, maybe you two can do something."

"A-Are you sure?" Hydro asked.

"Well..." Slink looked back at the other researchers to see them still arguing, "...they won't be much help anyways."

"We don't have a choice," Watt said.

Hydro extended his paw out to Watt, he had a determined spirit in his eyes. "Watt, we either do this, or everyone in Sea's Rest will either be torn apart or starve. There's no time to waste."

Watt sighed, "What if this doesn't work? They seem so adamant, what if we doom-"

Hydro cuts him off, "Watt, rule five of the researcher's code states to never fear the unknown, no matter the situation. We don't know what will happen, we just need to do this and do it now!"

Watt's mouth dropped open in surprise, how could he know that? "Hydro... where'd you learn that?"

"I may or may not have looked through your handbook while you were gone." Hydro nervously scratched the back of his head with his other paw,

Watt regained his composure, usually that part of the code applied to new discoveries others may fear or unanswered questions that would make pokemon question reality, however it seemed fitting for this situation as well. They must not fear uncertain outcomes. "Alright, I'm ready." he grabbed Hydro's paw and shook it. The two walked over to Coreef and Castello as they continued to argue, thankfully not turning into physical violence just yet.

"You two! Please stop for a moment!" Watt said firmly.

The two turned to them, "What do you want? We've already told you all you needed to know!" Castello yelled.

"You two have to stop fighting!" Hydro pleaded.

"You're tearing this entire dungeon apart! Separating yourselves into separate factions will only make the problem worse!" Watt explained firmly yet calmly.

Coreef glared at Castello, "He's the one who tore us apart! "

"You forced us to!" Catsello shot back.

"Look around you!" Watt yelled, "Stop arguing for a moment and just see what you've caused!"

Coreef and Castello finally decided to look around. They were shocked to see all the pokemon lying on the ground or barely standing, injured by the battle that had occurred between them. They moaned in pain, many of them were too injured to speak. They saw a krabby peek his head out from the hallway, and they could hear a meek voice from behind him ask, "I-Is it over yet?"

The took looked at each other and looked back at Watt and Hydro. "Y-You contributed too, right?" Coreef asked, his regal tone disappearing again.

"We only did it to stop it from spreading." Hydro said, "If you hadn't started fighting we wouldn't have gotten in the middle of it."

"You gave Coreef his shellder back!" Castello yelled, "The two of you picked your side, you're to blame for the damage you've caused!"

"If we were on Coreef's side, we would have knocked you out a while ago." Watt retorted while crossing his arms.

"We needed to do it to make sure you wouldn't do anything with it!" Hydro added.

Watt nodded at Hydro in agreement, "All we want to do is figure out a way to end this once and for all."

"Then tell us, who is right?" Coreef asked.

Watt and Hydro looked at each other, and took a moment to think. What would they say? They couldn't take a side now, and if they said they were both wrong, everything else could fall apart. Then, a realization hit them at the same time, they knew what to say. Watt smiled as if to signal Hydro it was time to give an answer.

Hydro turned towards them and said, "You're both right."

"What!?" Coreef and Castello both exclaimed in unison.

"Hydro, I feel you should explain first," Watt said.

"Alright." Hydro looked Castello in the eyes, "I understand you care about everyone, you want them to be able to survive. You're right about is that Coreef isn't doing anything about to food problem, however, stealing from innocent pokemon is never the answer."

Watt did the same with Coreef, "You're intentions are noble, but what other solution can you provide? You can't just cut off one way of getting supplies, only for there to be no other way to do so."

"The two of you need to cooperate, especially now," Hydro said to both.

"Especially at a time like this, when a crisis occurs everyone needs to work together, there needs to be a common solution both parties can agree with and work towards," Watt added.

Coreef and Castello stood there, thinking about what the two were saying. They realized that part of the reason Sea's Rest was crumbling was because of them. Maybe it was time to try to work together instead of against each other.

Castello sighed and looked a Coreef. "These two make a point. Maybe I was too hasty in my decision to bring harm to you."

"Maybe I should have been busy thinking of how to fix the crisis instead of just focusing on keeping you in line." Coreef replied.

"I should have helped with that..." Castello turned away in shame.

Coreef extended out his paw, "Don't worry, you're still my friend."

"E-Even after all of this? You're willing to call me a friend?" Castello asked.

"Friends never leave friends behind, especially in the direst of situations." Coreef smiled.

Castello turned to face him again, and looked down at his paw. He reached his pincer out, gently grasped it, and shook it.

Everyone in the room stared at the two of them. Two enemies now united to face a common threat to their people. It was almost poetic, a happy ending where none was expected.

Hex turned to Slink, "Did those two just do what I think they did?"

Slink nodded and smiled, "Yes, I believe they did."

Hydro turned to Watt, "We... we did it?"

"From what I could tell... yes." Watt smiled.

Hydro, overwhelmed by joy, hugged Watt as tightly as he could. "We did it! I can't believe we did it!"

Watt was initially caught off by the hug, but he hugged him back. "Me too, the odds were against us, however even they couldn't stop us."

Coreef turned to Watt, "I'd hate to ruin this wonderful moment, however, what are we going to do now? Do you happen to have any ideas."

"Yeah, you two were the ones who said we needed a solution, what is it?" Castello asked.

The two stopped hugging, and looked at both of them. Watt smiled, "That will take some thought, we will help in whatever way we can. At least you have more minds working together."

Their moment however, was interrupted when another pokemon entered the room. Everyone went quiet. It was Mago.


	11. Chapter 11

Everyone stared at Mago as he stood there, taking in the scene around him. His eyes softened with concern as he noticed all of the injured pokemon, understanding part of the situation almost immediately. "Are you alright? What happened here?"

"We're fine, there was a fight but everyone's okay. Coreef and Castello also seemed to have worked things out, we'll explain everything once we know we're in the clear." Slink quickly responded.

"Alright, however, we have a new problem. Hydro's missing and... hold on a minute." Out of the corner of his vision, he noticed Hydro and quickly locked eyes with him. Hydro's eyes widened with fear and he tried to duck behind Coreef on instinct. Mago picked him up with telekinesis and pulled him close to his face.

"I... um... well... you see..." Hydro stumbled over his words, unable to get a sentence out.

Mago scowled at Hydro, "I told you to stay put!"

"I know but... I-I couldn't just-"

"No excuses! You've could have gotten yourself hurt, or worse!"

"J-Just let me explain!" Hydro begged.

"You can explain when we get back to camp! I'm taking you back right now! Everyone else, return when everything is settled!" Mago was about to storm out of the room with Hydro still being held by telekinesis. Hydro flailed around as he tried to break free, continuing to beg for Mago to listen to him.

"Hold on for a moment!" Mago turned around and saw Watt standing there with his paws clenched. "I understand he disobeyed your orders, however, we wouldn't have been able to accomplish any of this without him."

Mago glared at him, "What could he have possibly done!? He's just a child!"

"He is not 'just a child!'" Watt retorted, "Hydro saved all of us."

Mago looked at the rest of the group, "Is any of this nonsense true!?"

The other researchers looked at each other, it was quite obvious what the answer was. Slink stepped forwards, "Yes, everything Watt says is true. Along with Watt, he helped fight off Castello's forces who were charging at us."

"I never even would have gotten involved if it wasn't for him," Watt admitted.

"Hold on... you not only let him stay, but let him fight!?" Mago placed Hydro back on the ground and stomped over to the researchers, "If I had the power to, I'd take away all of your badges!"

Flora tried to defuse the situation "We would have stopped him, but-"

"No excuses! You were all supposed to be better than this!"

"Sir, please just listen to us! We were completely powerless!" Miel begged.

Slink tried to explain the situation, "The dungeon shifted on us, separating Hydro and Watt from everyone else and we were too injured to fight from being thrown around! Castello was about to finish us of when-"

"What kind of excuse is that!?" Mago yelled, "Do you expect me to believe such a ridiculous story!?"

"I'm sure Coreef and Castello could answer that for you," Watt said, motioning his head in their direction. "They understand how this place functions, so if anyone has the answer, they do."

Mago turned to Coreef and Castello, "So, tell me!? Is this story actually true!?"

Coreef was the one who took charge of the situation, "Yes, they don't speak a single lie. Everything they say is true."

"I can confirm it as well." Castello added, "He's brave, that's for sure."

Mago paused as he tried to understand how such a young pokemon who had seemingly little combat experience took on an entire squad alongside Watt. "This seems ridiculous... it shouldn't have been possible. Are you sure any of the pokemon weren't injured before?"

Castello shook his head, "We used up most of our oran berry stockpile just for that one battle, so almost everyone was ready for combat."

Mago turned to Hydro, "You somehow defeated Castello too?"

"Well, it was mostly Watt who did the work, he paralyzed him." Hydro was a bit flattered that Mago would even ask that.

"He did save me by attacking Castello in the back at one point during the ordeal." Watt added, "Hydro also helped bring Sea's Rest back together. If it wasn't for his bravery to stand for everyone, I doubt any of us would be in a good position."

"Yes, I probably would have regretted this decision even more. I would have hurt so many pokemon and Sea's Rest would have no direction..." Castello stared at the ground in shame.

Mago once again turned back to Hydro. "How'd you do all of that? It shouldn't be possible."

Hydro tried to explain what was going on with him at that point, "I-I don't know what came over me. One second, I saw everyone in danger, the next, there was this burst of energy and I... I'm not sure how to explain it. I just rushed in and began attacking. At one point I got surrounded, and Watt saved me."

"And talking Coreef and Castello down?" Mago inquired.

"They explained what happened, Watt and I were able to reason with them afterwards. We didn't know if it would have worked, but we just didn't want this to end with more pokemon getting hurt."

"I'm just as surprised we were able to do it." Watt said.

Mago sighed, he wasn't sure what to think. He was still angry at how Hydro left against his orders, however, it seemed like everyone was thankful for his help. "King Coreef and Castello, are you two going to be fine on your own?"

"Yes, everything is fine now," Coreef replied.

He turned to the rest of the group. "Everyone, head back to camp, we'll discuss this more after dinner."

All the researchers and Hydro followed Mago out of the room without saying anything. Hydro walked closer to Watt. "H-Hey, I have to tell you something."

Watt turned his head to look at him, "What is it?"

"Thanks for standing up for me, and getting the others to do the same. I wouldn't have done any of this without you."

"Neither would I. I have to thank you as well."

The rest of the walk was silent.

 **A While Later...**

It was a relief for everyone when they left the cold cave and gathered around the warm, crackling fire. After finishing their dinners and putting their bowls away, they told Mago the specifics about what had happened. Their separation, Watt and Hydro getting trapped, the final confrontation, and the end of the conflict. Mago listened intently, taking in all that they were saying. He thought it was a miracle things didn't get worse.

"That's everything you need to know." Slink said, wrapping up the story.

"I see. Very interesting indeed." Mago stood up, "Well, I believe we should all get some rest. Tomorrow we'll discuss what our next move will be and how we can aid Sea's Rest."

"Excellent idea, sir." Miel replied.

"There's no need to waste time, you're all probably tired. Goodnight everyone."

Once Mago announced it was bedtime, everyone got up and headed to their tents. However, before Hydro could get inside, Mago tapped him on the shoulder. "Hydro, I'd like a word with you."

Hydro turned around, "Um, of course. What is it?"

"Follow me." Mago lead Hydro inside his tent, and sat down on his hay pile. Hydro was nervous at what Mago was about to say.

Mago spoke firmly like usual, but this time it was accompanied by a softer, gentler tone. "I will be honest, what you did back there was reckless and put both you and Watt in grave danger. However, at the same time, it was brave and selfless. I'm still not one hundred percent sure how to feel about all of this."

Hydro remained quiet, not wanting to potentially make Mago angry at him again.

"I didn't expect you to make such a daring act, and all to help everyone, even though you barely know them."

Hydro, on second thought, decided he should start to respond, there was no point in staying quiet. "That didn't matter to me. Every explorer needs to be kind and helpful to everyone no matter what."

Mago nodded his head, "I see. You were a great help to everyone. I'll let this slide for once, however, I must warn you against disobeying orders in the future."

"I understand. I'm sorry, I'll listen to you next time."

"Good. I'm glad we're on the same page now."

Hydro hesitated about asking this, but he felt like he needed to. "That means even if it means to help someone, right?"

Mago paused, and sighed. "Yes, Hydro. Even when that is the case."

Hydro turned his head to the side, "But why? Why wouldn't you try to help someone?

He tried to think of a way to put this. No matter what, it would be hard for him to hear, especially after the events that had just occurred. He got up and bent down in front of him, resting his hand of his shoulder. "Hydro, I know what you did worked out before, but sometimes... trying to help someone will only put you at risk too. I'm not saying helping pokemon is bad, it's quite good, however I fear what may happen if you try to help at the wrong time..."

Hydro was confused and shocked. "H-How could you just say that? What could possibly be the wrong time to help?"

"I wish I could give you an example you would understand, but that time will come eventually. You need to be prepared for that."

"How could that possibly be the case?"

Mago was about to respond, but he knew Hydro wouldn't get it just yet. "Go back to bed. Just be wary from now on, alright?"

"Okay..." Hydro got up and left the tent, wondering why helping could possibly be bad. He headed straight to Watt's tent and lied down his hay pile.

"Hydro, what took you so long?" Watt asked, his eyes were barely open.

"Mago wanted to talk to me," Hydro responded as he got comfortable.

Watt slightly lifted his head, "About what?"

"Just about what happened at Sea's Rest, nothing else." Hydro didn't want to bring up what Mago had told him.

"Alright." Watt yawned, "Goodnight, Hydro."

"Goodnight, Watt." Hydro watched as Watt slowly drifted off the sleep. He didn't feel that tired just yet, and he wanted to take his mind off things for a while. Remembering the handbook, he reached for it and began to read from where he left off in the dim candlelight.


	12. Chapter 12

Morning came once again as the loud horn blared, causing Watt and Hydro to jolt from their slumber. Watt rubbed his eyes, and looked over at Hydro, "Good morning, Hydro."

Hydro let out a yawn, "Good morning, Watt." he noticed the handbook was open right in front of him. "I guess I fell asleep while reading."

"I didn't expect someone like you to take much interest in that. It mainly just outlines the rules and procedures we follow, so it shouldn't be that attention-grabbing."

Hydro smiled, "You're talking to the pokemon who read an entire encyclopedia just out of curiosity." he said jokingly.

"True, I guess," Watt replied while stretching out his back.

"I've also been thinking about something," Hydro added.

Watt rested his paw on his chin, "What is it?"

Before Hydro could answer, Miel called out to them. "Come on you two! Get up already!"

"I'll tell you later." Hydro said, before both of them got up and left the tent.

Everyone once again grouped up in front of Mago. "Good morning everyone. I would like to announce that I'll be giving you all a break today."

"A break? But why?" Miel asked, "We need to gather as much information for our first report, don't we?"

Mago nodded, "Yes, our plan was to initially work as hard as possible, however, due to yesterday's events, I believe it would be in our best interest to take a breather and figure out what we're going to do under the new circumstances."

"I do feel a little sore from yesterday, so a break would be nice." Slink said.

"Haven't you forgotten!? Today is the day our first report is due, and if our findings are not valuable we will lose funding, and-" before Miel could finish his sentence, Flora covered his mouth with her paw.

Mago sighed and muttered under his breath, "At least someone got him to be quiet..." he cleared his throat and spoke normally again, "Yes, I understand that. However I doubt we'll find much else before our report is collected."

"Miel, I know you're passionate about this, however, we needed a break at some point," Watt added.

"But... but..." Miel raised one of his stingers before lowering it, "...fine."

"For now, enjoy your time off." Mago ended off his announcement and headed straight for his own tent.

Watt turned his head towards Hydro. "I guess now would be a good time to tell me what's on your mind. We could also work on that note you need to write."

"Alright," Hydro replied, as the two of them headed back to Watt's tent. Both of them sat down on their hay piles.

"It seems like you've been reading my handbook a lot, is it something about that?" Watt asked.

"Kind of." Hydro nervously tapped his fingers together. "I want to get your opinion on something."

"What is it?" Watt titled his head to the side.

"I've been thinking... I made it all the way here on my own, and I've met so many new friends like you."

"I know. What about that?"

Hydro looked nervous, "Well, maybe it's time for me to move on. I needed to leave home at some point, and maybe this was the time to do that."

Watt was caught off guard and looked confused. "Why? It seemed like you wanted to go home so much."

"I know I did, but now all I want to do is help you all. After seeing and reading about all the things you do, making discoveries about the world and spreading the knowledge you gain to help pokemon across the world, it's such an amazing thing."

"I see. I believe I know where you're going with this."

"It is kind of obvious, but I'll say it anyway. I want to become a researcher like you."

Watt paused and then asked, "Wouldn't your parents wonder where you are?"

"I know, that's why we'll still write the note, to tell there where I am and what I'm doing."

"Hydro... you know Mago is not going to approve of this, right?"

"I know he probably won't, but it's worth a shot." Hydro moved closer to Watt, "Listen, ever since I asked you about what it's like to be a researcher, I realized that this is what I want to do. I know I wanted to become an explorer before, but I know I won't be able to help everyone if I go that route." He looks outside through the tent flaps and thinks of all the pokemon he has met and the ones he may meet in the future. "Maybe if I do this, I could help everyone."

Watt took in everything Hydro had so eloquently said in such a short amount of time. He thought about everything they went through in the few days they knew each other, and then realized something. Hydro seemed so wise for someone his age, so full of potential with a strong spirit for doing good no matter what the cost.

He wrapped his arm around Hydro and smiled. "Hydro, I wanted to be a researcher for those same reasons. Knowledge is the true path to creating a better world. My father was the one who guided me in that direction, who showed how discovery lead to peace and prosperity. He inspired me to follow in his footsteps. I want to live up to expectations of him and the rest of the world, to inspire others like he did with me and make the world a better place."

Hydro wrapped his arm around Watt while also smiling. "You were the one who showed me the way, so you're already living up to those expectations."

"Thank you, Hydro. I'm happy I could do what my father did for me." Watt got up and headed towards the exit of the tent.

"Where are you going?" Hydro asked.

Watt turned towards Hydro, "I'm going to tell Mago what you told me."

"Why's that?"

"Maybe he'd give you a chance to become a researcher. However, I'm not completely positive it will work. Though, if this is really what you want to do, I'll try to help you achieve that goal."

Hydro was stunned, he couldn't believe that Watt was actually going to try to do this. "Watt... thank you so much!"

"You're welcome." Watt turned to leave again.

"Wait! One more thing." Hydro called out.

Watt turned around once more, "Yes?"

"M-May I come with you, please?" Hydro asked.

Watt nodded, "Of course you can."

"T-Thank you again." Hydro walked up to Watt. The two of them held each other's paws as they headed for Mago's tent. As they proceeded, they both began to get nervous about what Mago would say, especially Hydro. What if Mago saw this as letting Hydro throw himself into more danger?

Watt walked up to the tent, "Sir, Hydro and I would like to speak with you."

Mago walked over to the tent flaps and pushed them aside. "What is it about?"

"It's about Hydro, this is important," Watt replied.

"Alright, you may come in." Mago opened the tent flaps and got out of the way, letting the two walk inside.

Mago sat down on his hay pile, "Please be brief, I have a lot of work to catch up on."

Watt proceeded to explain the small discussion they had together. Mago as usual, listened intently, refraining from interrupting him from speaking.

When Watt finished, Mago looked over at Hydro. "Is this true?" he asked.

Hydro nodded, "Yes, all of it is."

Mago paused, "Hmm." he maintained eye contact with Hydro. "It seems like you're passionate about this, however, I'm not sure we can do this."

"Huh? Why's that?" Hydro asked.

"It's because your parents are still searching for you. If we took you under our wing, we'd might as well be kidnapping you."

Watt spoke up, "Well, we were planning on sending a note to them telling them where he was and where to find him. The two of us were going to ask for permission for him to join us as well."

Hydro smiled at Mago, "So if my parents do agree, you'll let me join you guys, right?"

"Maybe. However that's only if they say yes. There's another barrier as well."

"What could that be?"

"Not just anyone can join the Geo Research Foundation. It only allows those who are truly capable of fulfilling the demanding job to join. Not only must you be able to cope with the workload, you must also be extremely knowledgeable about scientific processes and specific areas of science such as geology and biology."

Watt nodded, "Yes, despite the name we don't only focus on the physical structure of the planet."

"I understand that. However, I'm willing to do whatever it takes if it means I can make the lives of others better."

"Be mindful, it's easier to say you can do it rather than to accomplish it," Mago warned.

Hydro nodded, "I'm confident in myself, sir."

"I must also tell you that you cannot be a fully fledged researcher yet. However, you can enroll in our Junior Researcher program."

Hydro tilted his head to the side, "What's that?"

"I can explain, I was a part of the program before," Watt said, turning towards Hydro. "In simplistic terms, it's a program designed for those interested in becoming a researcher, yet are below the minimum age of eighteen. They provide all the training and knowledge necessary for this line of work."

"That sounds great!" Hydro exclaimed in glee.

"It is a wonderful thing. However there is rigorous testing for all the core skills and, of course, understanding the laws of principles about how our world functions."

"I think I can handle that." Hydro said.

"Are you sure?" Mago inquired, "This isn't a decision that should be made lightly."

"I am sure. Nothing's going to change my mind." Hydro had determination in his eyes. He knew he would try his hardest to achieve whatever he needed to.

Mago took a moment before replying, "Alright, if you're parents agree, I will find a way to get you a registration form."

"Wait... you're really going to help?" Hydro was surprised by his answer.

Mago nodded, "Yes, we could always use more talent in the field or in the labs. After hearing about what you've done, I believe you have potential. However, my previous warning about not charging into danger or disobeying orders still applies."

"T-T-Thank you so much!" Hydro exclaimed, barely able to keep himself from dancing around the tent.

"My pleasure. You'd better get the note done quickly though, the mail carrier should arrive fairly soon."

"Don't worry, we will." Hydro grabbed Watt's arm, "Come on! Let's hurry!"

Watt smiled, "Of course." the two of them headed back towards Watt's tent.

The two of them immediately got to work on the note. Watt knew they didn't need to make it long, they just needed it be able to communicate the message effectively. He also suggested they omit the parts about Hydro throwing himself in danger to keep his parents from becoming more concerned. About thirty minutes later, Hydro read out the note to see if it would be good.

Hydro cleared his throat.

"Dear mom and dad,

I'm sorry for running away. I know you and the rest of the family are worried about me. However, I am safe. I've traveled so far from home all by myself, but I was found by a group of mystery dungeon researchers part of the Geo-Research Foundation which works in the Joydel Province. One of my friends apologized for not telling me earlier as we worked on this note. They let me stay with them, and I've been living at their camp over the past few days.

Over time, I got to know all the members, especially Mago, the head of the expedition, and Watt, who's become my best friend at the camp. They've been extremely kind to me and have kept me safe throughout my time here. I'm so happy I got the chance to meet them.

As my time here continued, I became more interested in becoming a researcher myself. I've even read through a fair chunk of the handbook. They help pokemon, but through the discovery of how the world works rather than by stopping outlaws. I've become some fascinated with it and I feel this should be my path.

Mago is planning to sign me up for the Junior Researchers Program, but only if you are fine with me staying. If you are not, the map in the note will show you where I am so you can get someone to bring me home.

I'm fine with whatever option you choose. I will still love you either way.

Love, your son, Hydro."

Hydro looked up from the page and to Watt. "So, did we do it right?"

Watt nodded, "I believe we did. This letter should be ready." The two took an envelope they had gotten from Mago, put the letter inside, and then sealed it.

Around an hour later, a pelipper with a large mail satchel landed in the center of the camp. He took off a small bell that was attached to the satchel and rung it to announce his arrival.

Everyone walked outside their tents. Mago walked out carrying a bundle of papers under his arm and shook the pelipper's wing.

"It's an honor to meet you, Mago." the pelipper said as he saluted, "Sadly I cannot stay here to chat. Do you have those papers that were requested of you?"

"Right here," Mago said, moving them out from under his arm and into the wings of the pelipper. He put them inside the satchel.

"Thank you kindly. I should get going, I really don't want to be late."

Hydro walked up to the pelipper with the map and letter in hand. "Excuse me, would you mind delivering something for me?" he asked politely.

The pelipper turned towards him, "I'd be happy to! What is it?"

"It's a letter for my parents," Hydro said.

Watt walked up next to Hydro, "Yes. You see, he's lost, and we're trying to help his parents find him."

"Oh you poor soul!" the pelipper exclaimed, "I'll deliver this as soon as possible."

Watt handed him the map, "This shows roughly where they live, it's a small village nearby a Stone-Arch falls." he said, pointing to the red circle showing where the village could possibly be found."

"Gotcha!" the pelipper replied, slipping the map into his pouch alongside the note. He turned to Mago, "We thank you and the rest of the Geo Research Foundation for your continued support of the Joydel branch of the Pelipper Mail Service." he saluted once again before he flew off.

Mago turned to everyone, "Return to what you were doing before." he said before walking back to his tent.

Everyone else did the same. Watt and Hydro went back inside.


	13. Chapter 13

Almost a week had passed since that letter was sent. The other researchers heard about Hydro potentially joining them the day after this. While they were of course concerned for Hydro, they agreed this decision should be left up to his parents.

As everyone else was out doing their jobs, Mago always saw Hydro pacing inside Watt's tent whenever he went to check up on him. He constantly reassured Hydro that the reply will come soon and that he had nothing to worry about. Mago, busy as always, usually suggested that Hydro should read a book to take his mind off things, and then he left to get back to work.

One evening, when the team was just about to get ready to eat, a familiar pelipper landed on the edge of the camp. Their eyes locked onto him as he announced, "Good news, everyone!" He quickly reached into his bag, pulling out two separate letters. "A letter from the Geo Research Foundation came in." he turned his attention to Hydro, "I also received a letter from your parents as well."

The pelipper wasted no time handing the letters to Mago. "Thank you. I'll read these to everyone right away."

"Not a problem, sir." the pelipper saluted, and was about to take off again.

Mago then remembered the promise he made with Hydro, "Hold on, it seems to be getting kind of dark. Would you mind staying here for tonight? We might have something you need to deliver back to the foundation in the morning anyway."

The pelipper thought for a moment, "Well, if it wouldn't cause too much trouble for you, I'd be happy too. I was feeling a little tired anyway."

"Alright, you can sleep inside my tent for the night when it's time for us to rest."

"Thanks, I'll give you some privacy to read the notes. Please send someone to find me when you're done." the pelipper made his way down the forest path, but not too far from the camp as to get lost.

Everyone turned to Mago. "Which one do you think I should read first?" he asked.

"Y-You can read the one from my parents last, I-I'm a little anxious about what they said." Hydro replied.

"Alright." Mago handed the envelope to Slink to hold on to, and showed them the one with a wax seal in the shape of the researcher's badge. He went inside his tent to grab a letter opener, and slid it under the wax seal. After that, he returned with the letter out of the envelope and read it out loud.

"To the Mystery Dungeon Research Team,

Your recent discovery, while small, shows great promise for the future of this project. Despite multiple past failures we believe that now we have some base to work off of, and we must thank all of you for your hard work and dedication.

As a result, the finance council has decided to double the project's current funding. This change will become official in three business days, and your supplies per week will be increased as well.

The current package will arrive soon, however it is late due to internal issues. Rest assured it is on its way and will arrive within two to three days and we apologize for any inconveniences this may create.

As always, keep up the hard work.

-Signed, Head Professor Metodi."

Mago looked up from the page at everyone, "Congratulations everyone, I'm proud of you all."

Everyone let out a loud cheer, they'd been hoping for good news like this and now they could make even more progress to their goal.

"Sir, we wouldn't have done any of this without you!" Miel added.

Mago shook his head, "Oh no, the credit goes to all of you."

"But... there's one thing concerning me." Slink said, "They mentioned internal issues, but they didn't elaborate on what they are."

Hex nodded, "Yes, the foundation prides itself on its efficiency, especially when supplying those in the field. This seems extremely out of the ordinary."

"It's nothing to worry about, I'm sure they have everything under control." Miel said.

"There's no need to be such worry warts!" Flora added, "It's just one hiccup."

"I highly doubt these 'internal issues' are going to cause major problems in the long run." Watt reassured everyone.

Mago cleared his throat, "Anyways, let's proceed." he took the other note from Slink, and turned to Hydro, "Do you want me to read this, or want to do it yourself?"

"I guess I should." Hydro looked nervous, but he stretched out his arm so Mago could give the note to him. It was in a plain envelope with no seal, so Hydro was able to tear it open. He took out the note, and slowly unfolded it. He prepared himself for the worst.

"Dear Hydro,

We're happy to know you're safe. Everyone has been worried sick ever since we saw you were gone, we all thought the worst could have happened to you. Both of us could barely sleep and we couldn't stop thinking about you. It was a relief to finally receive this note.

We can't believe you made it so far on your own. The two of us are grateful for those pokemon for finding you and letting you stay. Please, let them know how thankful we are when you get the chance.

Hearing you wanted to stay with them and join their ranks surprised us. We remember you constantly talking about becoming an explorer, all the places you'd visit, the treasure you'd find, and all the pokemon you would help. It didn't seem like you were going to change your mind at all.

Your father and I talked about this after receiving your note. We both understand there's a time a pokemon discovers what they're truly meant for, their path in life they will take until the very end. For some, this time would come early, while for others it would be later. Sometimes a pokemon believes they have found their path, only for their life to take a different direction.

We knew you'd leave home at some point to discover what you were truly meant to be. No matter how much we wanted to protect you we knew we couldn't do it forever. Now, you're with friends you can trust on a new life path no one could have expected, and while we want you home so much, maybe it's best you pursue your new found goals."

Hydro paused, and stared up from the note in disbelief. He looked down at the page and continued.

"If this is what will truly make you happy, we would be in the wrong to not let you follow your new dreams. Everyone here will miss you greatly, but we believe you can accomplish this demanding task.

We requested the map be given to the Geo Research Foundation if you ever decide to come home. However we believe you have the willpower to succeed.

Before we end off the note, I want to give one final message to you. Hydro, you mean the world to us. From the day you hatched we believe you were something special. We wanted to protect you, keep you safe from anyone who may harm you. Now, I see you are stronger than we thought.

Life will try to keep you down, push you around, make you question why you're even still trying, but just remember you are stronger than it. You're stronger than a storm, never forget that.

We love you.

From, Mom."

Hydro looked up from the page again, everyone was staring at him, all of them in as much disbelief as he was.

"Um... are you guys alright?" Hydro asked.

Then, Watt slowly started to clap. After a few seconds, Slink joined in as the two clapped faster. Miel and Flora began to cheer. Hydro smiled as they gathered around him, congratulating him on the start of a new beginning.

After the initial excitement wore off, everyone noticed Hex and Mago were not joining in.

"Hey, what's the matter?" Flora asked both of them.

Hex looked down at the ground slightly, "Are you sure this is a good idea? What if he gets himself hurt?"

"Hex, we've already been through this. He'll be fine." Slink replied.

"He deserves this for all he's done, so why not let all of us celebrate?" Flora asked.

Hex turned around, "I'm going to find the pelipper. I'll be back soon."

Everyone watched him walk into the forest. All of them were disappointed by his reaction.

"What a party pooper." Flora commented.

Slink's ears drooped, "Flora, please, let's not have any more negativity."

Mago walked up to all of them. "Well, it seems we've been given the go-ahead to start Hydro's registration process. I'll send a note to the main headquarters about getting the proper papers for this."

"Before you do so, might I ask if he's going to stay here with us, or be sent back to Granite Town to be part of the main group of students?" Watt asked.

"I thought about this, and I believe he should stay here with us." Mago replied, "He could have experience with a real team, and the foundation could simply add in the necessary supplies for junior projects into our supply packages. However, I'll have to see what the superiors think."

Miel flapped his wings slightly faster, "Excellent idea like always, sir!"

"For now, how about we all eat and then call it a night?"

The group went back to their meals and began to eat.

 **Later...**

Watt and Hydro were lying down on their hay piles. Everything was quiet except for the crackling of the fire outside. Hydro flipped over and faced Watt. "Hey, are you still awake?" he asked.

He flipped over. "Yes, I'm finding it kind of hard to sleep."

"Alright, I am too." Hydro fidgeted with some of the hay. "I was wondering about something."

"What is it?" Watt asked, shifting a little bit on the pile.

"Why is Hex so... um... how should I put it..."

Watt scratched behind his head, "I've been wondering about that too. I'm not going to question his experience as a researcher, however he doesn't seem to be getting along with us."

"Yeah, and every time someone mentioned the idea of me staying, he always acts so weird."

"I'm sure he's just worried about you like Mago." Watt reassured him. However, he wasn't so sure about that either. First Mago starts to act strangely, and now Hex was being very odd. Who knew what other mysteries there would be?

"I guess." Hydro replied. He paused for a moment, as he thought of something else to ask. "Oh, one more thing."

Watt snapped out of his thoughts, "Yes?"

"Do researchers have official teams, like what explorers and rescuers have?"

Watt slowly shook his head, "No, why do you ask?"

Hydro smiled, "Well, I just thought that the two of us would... make a good team."

Watt paused, "There's nothing saying we can't make an unofficial team."

"So, is that a yes?" Hydro asked eagerly.

"Of course, I'd be happy to continue to work alongside you."

Hydro flashed Watt a big, toothy grin. "Y-You really mean it!?" he asked excitedly, his sleepiness seemingly disappearing.

"Why would I not mean it? I saw how well we performed at Sea's Rest, there's no reason I can think of to not become partners."

Hydro blushed from flattery, "T-Thank you so much!"

"That's only if the higher ups let you join." Watt reminded him.

"Oh... I forgot about that part." Hydro chuckled nervously.

"However, I'm confident that they will, especially since the application request is coming from one of the foundation's most valued researchers." he added.

"Okay, that's a relief." He nervously scratched the back of his head.

Watt put his arms behind his head. "Hydro, I believe that together, we can solve the world's mysteries and create a brighter future for this generation and beyond."

Hydro lied back down, "I believe we can too. There's no doubt in my mind that as long as we stick as a team, we can do anything."

"Well, maybe not everything. Just as long as it stays within the realm of possibility."

"I know." Hydro's mind flooded with thoughts about the future they'd have together. All the adventures they have and things they will discover, it was like a dream but in reality.

Watt rested his arms at his side, "We should probably get some sleep. Tomorrow will be another big day."

"Yep, and another day I spend with you." Hydro replied.

Watt smiled and shut his eyes. "Goodnight, Hydro. Sweet dreams."

"Goodnight." Hydro shut his eyes as well. He doubted he could ever get to sleep, his excitement was immeasurable.

Hydro quietly whispered to himself, "Thank you, Watt, Mago, mom, dad, and everyone else. I'll make you all proud, you'll see."

 **Epilogue**

A week had passed since that day. Hydro was accepted into the Junior Researcher's Program. He had received a badge with a light blue hexagon in the middle, the Junior Badge. Hydro was also given a power band as a welcome present.

Watt had also received a promotion for his hard work. As a result, he traded in his old badge for his new Bronze Rank one. He knew he had a long way to go, but this first promotion was the first step towards greater things.

Mago watched the two as they prepared to set out on their first official adventure.

"Come on, Watt! Hurry up!" Hydro called out towards the tent.

Watt rushed out, carrying his knapsack full of supplies, "I'm here, no need to rush me."

"Let's go! Who knows what we'll find today?" Hydro and Watt set off for Sea's Rest once again.

Mago continued to watch as they leave, feeling nostalgic about his first real adventure. "Oh the young spirit, such a valuable thing to the world."

He used telekinesis to pull a roll of paper out of the tent. Mago opened it up to reveal a painting of him and Nocktur, back when they were a kadabra and datrix.

He could almost hear the voices of the past echo in his mind. "Come on, Nocktur! Off to another adventure!"

"I'm coming, Mago! Slow down or I'll never catch up."

Mago could hear the two of them laughing toegther. He shut his eyes and shook his head, "Those days are long gone now. How different we were back then, you and I."

He rolled up the piece of paper and held it at his side, "I wish you were here to see this. A new generation coming to accomplish what we had set out to do years ago. You've passed your torch on, but I have yet to do so."

Mago smiled, and stared at the sky. "Arceus and the Legends above, I shall play my part in making sure they will carry the torch far, far beyond what I will ever witness. Be my witnesses."

He turned and headed back inside his tent. Now it was time to return to business as usual.

-

 **This is far from the end. Many questions remain unanswered, yet Team Storm will do everything in their power to bring the truth to light. It cannot hide in the shadows forever.**

 **Never fear the unknown, for there is beauty in what the eye can't see.**

 **-**

 **Author's Note** ****

 **Special thanks to Xrayleader and Geno-Riolu for proofreading some of the chapters of this story. You guys were a real big help, and I have to thank you.  
**  
 **I have not come up with the title for the next series, but I will try to make the first episode soon.  
**  
 **I hope you enjoyed the story.**

 **-Qerta**


End file.
